New marriage regulation in Chechnya helped detecting four cases of AIDS

New rules of marriage registration enacted by the clergy in Chechnya according to which young people intending to create a family are obliged to undergo medical examination for AIDS have helped detecting four cases of this disease.

"After a decision was taken last autumn according to which young people were obliged to undergo medical examination for HIV/AIDS and submit the respective certificate to the mullah who registers their marriage according to Islamic law, a great number of young people suffering from all kinds of venereal diseases were detected while practically none of them had the slightest idea of a disease. Among the young people who were going to get married four cases of AIDS only were discovered", a representative of the Religious Board of Muslims (RBM) says. 

According to the data of the Ministry of Public Health of Chechen Republic, over 1300 cases of AIDS disease were registered in 2010 in Chechnya. There were over 300 women and about 200 children among the patients. Yet at that time there were over 120 married couples in which not only the parents but the children, too, were carriers of this fatal virus. 

"According to statistics, 51% cases of with AIDS virus is connected with introduction of drugs by injection. Contamination through genital tracts is in the second place and the third place is taken by fetal infection. Annual increase of the number of AIDS patients makes about one hundred people", an official of the Ministry of Public Health of Chechnya says.

According to him, the area of HIV infection's diffusion involves already over one hundred localities of the republic. Grozny takes the first place by the number AIDS cases. Our interlocutor states that treatment of one patient affected by immunodeficiency virus costs more than ten thousand dollars a year. He added that out of all HIV infected residents of the republic only the persons whose immune system was seriously injured by the virus were provided with the necessary medications.