An action "The World against AIDS" passed off in Grozny

On December, 1, Chechnya celebrated the World day of struggle against AIDS with a great action. It was carried out by activists of youth patriotic club "Ramzan", Informational and publishing center "Put'" and the regional department of Voluntary Association of assistance to the army, military aviation and navy.

"World against AIDS" was the slogan of the action. Tens of people with banners and posters processed along the central street of Chechen capital. The participants of the action also visited the institutes of higher education of Grozny as well as places popular with the young, i.e. parks and public gardens where they distributed booklets with informational materials describing AIDS.

"The action has had the only purpose: to let the citizens know that the problem exists in our country, too, and it may concern to everyone. Public discussions of such things are not accepted by our mentality but that does not mean that we have no AIDS. Special care should be taken of the young generation because they form the main risk group", one of the participants of the action said to a reporter of "Caucasian Knot".

According to the data of the republican Ministry of Public Health, 1 465 AIDS infected persons are registered today. There are 42 children and 362 women among AIDS carriers. 56 people died from AIDS during 11 months of the current year.

Experts also observe that the majority of AIDS infected patients are persons using drugs intravenously. They make over 50% of all the AIDS patients.

They also emphasize that a little less than 30% HIV/AIDS patients in Chechnya have got infected through genital tracts. Cases were also registered when people got infected after the procedure of blood transfusion and also cases of infecting a baby by its mother. Experts state that treatment of one person suffering from immunodeficiency virus costs over ten thousand dollars annually.