AIDS OFFICIALS SKIRT HARDEST-HIT GROUPS

The nation's chief epidemiologist and State Duma deputies pledged
support Thursday for the war on AIDS but avoided discussing hard-hit
groups such as prostitutes, drug users and homosexuals, in contrast
with officials from other countries, including China and India.

Their comments came at a conference featuring lawmakers from Germany,
Britain, China, India and Brazil in advance of the G8 summit, where
AIDS is expected to be prominently discussed.

Chief epidemiologist Gennady Onishchenko and Tatyana Yakovleva, head
of the Duma's Public Health Committee, warned the disease was
spreading into the general public and stressed the need for vaccines
and free treatment for those who were infected. Onishchenko added
that HIV would be extensively discussed at the Group of Eight summit
in St. Petersburg in July.

Russia has 340,000 officially registered AIDS cases. International
estimates put the figure at over 1 million.

But unlike their counterparts from other countries who spoke of
"injecting drug users" and "men having sex with men," Onishchenko and
Yakovleva employed a more traditional vocabulary: They used the term
"addicts" to describe drug users, and Onishchenko referred to sex
between men as "the unnatural way."

Yakovleva said that at least half of the approximately $100 million
allocated in Russia for fighting AIDS this year would go toward
prevention, including by raising awareness and providing testing.
Asked about prevention among drug users, who account for the majority
of new infections in Russia, she made it clear the government would
not accommodate their habit.

"We categorically oppose substitution therapy," Yakovleva said,
referring to a program that has been popular in the West for decades
that involves giving heroine users methadone.

Substitution therapy is supported by officials from the UNAID program
and the World Health Organization as an important tool in battling
drug addiction and the spread of HIV.

Lawmakers from other countries, by contrast, said needle-exchange and
substitution-therapy programs were part of their anti-HIV efforts.
They also discussed the need to provide treatment to people who took
part in illegal activities such as drug use and prostitution.

Despite reluctance to adopt more current tactics to battle the
disease, Yakovleva did note that Russian regions would be able to
decide on their own whether to fund needle-exchange programs with
federal money. Russian AIDS activists at the Eastern European and
Central Asian AIDS Conference held in Moscow in May repeatedly
complained about the scarcity of such prevention programs for drug users.

AIDS activist Mikhail Rukavishnikov criticized the government's
opposition to substitution therapy, saying it was time to catch up
with the rest of the world.

One country that has embraced substitution therapy is China. Li
Honggui, a Chinese lawmaker, said his government had made reaching
out to high-risk groups a priority. Needle exchanges are also
available in China, he said.

Indian lawmakers said they were working on a bill that would prohibit
discrimination against people with AIDS and make it easier for
prostitutes, drug users and others involved in illegal activities to
get health care.

Arash Alaei, who works with people with AIDS and other diseases in
Iran, said the conservative Islamic state's denial of the existence
of drug use and prostitution in the country, coupled with
stigmatization, led to high rates of suicide among those with HIV. He
added that resistance to testing had contributed to the spread of the disease.