Russia should test roughly one-third of its population for HIV each year to curb the spread of the virus, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said Friday, as official data show infections continuing to rise.<\/p>\n
Murashko, speaking at a ministry meeting, said expanding screening coverage was essential to reducing transmission of the virus that causes AIDS.<\/p>\n
\u201cFurther expansion of medical testing is necessary. Every third citizen should be tested, with particular attention to at-risk groups,\u201d the Health Ministry\u2019s press service quoted<\/a> him as saying.<\/p>\n The push for broader testing comes as Russia faces one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in Europe, with infections continuing to climb despite record screening levels.<\/p>\n According to<\/a> state consumer health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, more than 54 million people \u2014 about 37% of the population \u2014 were tested for HIV in 2024, the highest level in at least a decade.<\/p>\n That figure was 7% higher than in 2023 and nearly double the 28.3 million tests conducted in 2014.<\/p>\n Even so, World Health Organization data show<\/a> Russia\u2019s HIV prevalence at 890 cases per 100,000 people.<\/p>\n That is\u00a0comparable to several African countries such as Guinea (874), Liberia (944), Chad (771) and Ethiopia (601), and is markedly higher than in European countries including France (358), Britain (191) and Sweden (171).<\/p>\n