30 May 2004 18:58
RUSSIA: AIDS TO CUT POPULATION AND WORKFORCE BY ALMOST 5 PERCENT IN FOUR DECADES
By 2050, the Russian population will drop by between 1.3 percent and 4.4 percent because of AIDS, and the number of
people economically active will drop correspondingly by between 1.4 percent and 5.4 percent, "Izvestiya"
reported on 27 May, citing the Moscow Bureau of the International Organization for Labor. By 2010, around 8 million
people -- more than 10 percent of the adult population of Russia -- will be HIV carriers, according to a report by the
U.S.-Russia Against HIV-AIDS working group. According to the daily, the government has not acknowledged the seriousness
of the impending crisis, because to do so would require spending vast sums of money. For example, Brazil, whose
situation is similar to Russia's, earmarks more than $200 million annually to resolve the problem, while Russia
allotted only 122 million rubles ($4.2 million) in 2003. The daily also reported that on 26 May Ivanovo Oblast Deputy
Governor Olga Khasbulatova signed an agreement with a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded project
called Healthy Russia aimed at preventing the spread of AIDS. The $20 million-$25 million project will run for four
years in Ivanovo, Saratov, Orenburg, and Irkutsk oblasts. JAC Copyright (c) 2004. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the
permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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