AIDS Emerges as a Major Killer of Russians

Russia's leading expert on the disease, Vadim Pokrovsky, says the authorities massively underestimated the spread of the disease.

He says there are up to seven times more cases than officially registered.

Mr Pokrovsky, head of the government-run National Centre for the Fight against AIDS, warns that the number of officially registered HIV cases will reach 100,000 by the end of the month.

He says the virus is spreading at a catastrophic rate and hundreds of thousands more Russian citizens will contract HIV by 2005.

http://www.abc.net.au/ra/newsdaily/s259554.htm