Russia: HIV spreads beyond risk groups in 27 regions, epidemiologists say

In 27 Russian regions, there is a generalised HIV epidemic. This was reported by the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor. Scientists use this term for the stage when the human immunodeficiency virus spreads in the general population rather than only among risk groups. In these regions, HIV is diagnosed in more than 1% of pregnant women. The situation is most serious in the Kemerovo, Irkutsk and Sverdlovsk regions. And although, according to the Central Research Institute for the Prevention and Control of AIDS, 45,000 new HIV cases were detected in Russia in 2025, which is 13.