Russia's blossoming civil society holds the key to HIV. control

摘要

Russia's leaders are facing an HIV epidemic that experts believe could become a national disaster. But ignorance and ingrained prejudices among the general population hinder efforts at control. Is Russia's nascent civil society strong enough to meet the challenge? Hannah Brown reports."I'm going to give up on Monday", promises Vadim with a wry smile, before listing heroin, cannabis, and hunka-a home-made opiate common in the west Siberian city of Tomsk, where Vadim lives-among the drugs he has been hooked on since 1993. "But it's not so easy to stop. Even if you don't feel a physical dependence."As a young male drug user, Vadim, 29, could be the epitome of Russia's HIV epidemic. But he is not infected-at least not yet. After contracting hepatitis from sharing needles a few years ago, he has been a meticulous visitor to Tomsk's needle-exchange centre, housed in an anonymous dust-caked building on the city's outskirts. "There's no place to get clean needles other than here", he says.The centre keeps tabson its visitors, and operates under the watchful, if distant, eye of the authorities, but Vadim is worried enough about contracting HIV make sure his regular visits include blood tests. "My wife doesn't use drugs, so I have to be tested regularly to protect her", he explains.