Russians polled on HIV/Aids

One in five Russians have taken an HIV test this year, according to a poll.

A total of 1,600 from 140 settlements were questioned in a survey by the All Russia Public Opinion Center, according to ITAR-TASS World Service Reports.

Nearly half of the research group had learned about the virus from television and radio broadcasts, Medical News Today said.

According to the World Health Organization, 373,259 people were living with HIV at the end of 2006 and 3,507 had Aids.

Pavol Bimacoff, a psychologist in Chelyabinsk, which has a high HIV/Aids prevalence, told the news agency that people still did not know enough about the virus, despite a recent public health campaign.

A physician at the Regional Infection Center in the area said the government had waited "six long years" to respond to HIV/Aids in the region and had not provided enough funds to tackle the problem.

Chelyabinsk has double the number of people with HIV compared to the national average.

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