Russia fears rapid increase in HIV infection

An explosion of HIV infection among Russia's drug misusers will spread rapidly to the general population unless urgent measures are taken, according to the United Nations AIDS office, which has recently opened in Moscow.

More than 60% of new cases of HIV recorded in 1996 were among injecting drug users, as opposed to 0.3% in 1995, when homosexual intercourse (28.6%) and medical treatment (24.5%) were the main sources of …