Washington Post examines HIV, TB epidemics in Russia

The Washington Post examines how the HIV and tuberculosis (TB) epidemics are affecting Russia, where "HIV/AIDS was the third-largest cause of premature death," according to recently released data in the Global Burden of Disease Study 2012 (GBD). "When the study grouped countries by income, Russia was compared to 14 others, including the Baltics, Lebanon, Libya, Mexico and Botswana," the newspaper writes, adding, "On many measures, Botswana did better than Russia, but they were close on premature deaths from HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis and on life expectancy -- 68.9 in Russia in 2010 and 71 in Botswana."

The newspaper details the increasing number of HIV/AIDS and TB cases, including multidrug-resistant cases, in the country; reasons behind the rising numbers; and the historical impact of the fall of the Soviet Union. The Washington Post includes comments from Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, which produced the GBD; Anya Sarang, president of the Andrey Rylkov Foundation for Health and Social Justice; Vadim Pokrovsky, head of Russia's Federal AIDS Center; and Olga Nechaeva, head of Russia's federal TB monitoring center (Lally, 3/28).