AIDS epidemic in Siberia

9,228 HIV-infected persons registered in Irkutsk region in Siberia, Russia. The region took the second place after Kaliningrad, the region in the west of Russia. The epidemic began in 1999 when 3,248 patients were registered, as opposed to 23 in 1998. Meanwhile, the sum of money, allocated for struggle against AIDS in 1999 (2,9 million rubles, approximately 100 thousand dollars) was sufficient only for tests and partly for preventive measures. 14 million rubles were allocated for it in 2001. However the anti-AIDS schedule provides only for preventive measures, because anti-AIDS center is not built yet, and the medicines are very expensive.