Russian health authorities register 100 new cases of HIV infection every day, four percent more than in 2004, a senior health official said Monday.
One young person aged between 18 and 24 in every 100 is HIV-positive, according to Vadim Pokrovsky, head of the federal centre for preventing and combatting AIDS, cited by the Itar Tass news agency.
"If these people do not get modern care, they will die of AIDS in the next 10 years," he said.
The centre has information on 357,000 HIV-positive Russian nationals, of whom 10,000 are dead, he said.
"About 14,000 children born to infected mothers are under observation," he added.
The proportion of infections arising from sexual contacts has risen to 31 percent, compared with six percent in 2001.
Pokrovksy identified the absence of prevention programmes and the high cost of drugs as the chief problems in the fight against AIDS in Russia.
