Yahoo – AFP,
2 Dec 2015
Moscow (AFP) - A well-known Russian television host announced live on air that he is HIV-positive, an unprecedented revelation in a country with rising infection rates but where HIV/AIDS remains a largely taboo subject.
Russia accounted for 60% of all diagnoses of HIV across Europe in 2014, according to the World Health Organisation (AFP Photo/Florian Schuh) |
Moscow (AFP) - A well-known Russian television host announced live on air that he is HIV-positive, an unprecedented revelation in a country with rising infection rates but where HIV/AIDS remains a largely taboo subject.
Pavel
Lobkov, a presenter on the independent TV station Dozhd and a former news
anchor on state television, made the announcement during a show on Tuesday
evening, on World Aids Day.
He is the
first Russian public figure to openly declare himself HIV-positive.
Russia has
one of the highest rates of HIV infection in the world, with around 1,000 new
cases diagnosed each month and a total of almost a million people known to be
infected, with the real total likely to be much higher.
Lobkov, 48,
said that he learnt of his condition more than a decade ago, in 2003, after
asking to be tested at a private clinic.
Describing
the brutal way in which he was informed of his status, Lobkov said he saw
"HIV+" written in red on his file and that the doctor told him he
could no longer receive treatment at the clinic because "you are HIV
positive."
The room
"had an open window, very low down," he said, hinting that he had
contemplated suicide.
"Today
I accomplished a serious feat in my life," he said of his revelation.
Lobkov is
known for being outspoken. He was fired from the state NTV channel in 2012 -- a
move he said was prompted by his attendance of opposition demonstrations
against Vladimir Putin's return to the presidency.
His
disclosure of the fact that he is living with HIV won praise from many
Russians.
"Such
a step has a huge meaning for everyone with the status," human rights
lawyer Pavel Chikov wrote on Twitter.
But the
journalist also sustained a stream of online abuse, mostly maligning gays.
In a
Facebook message on Wednesday, he thanked those who had voiced support for his
"battle with medieval attitudes" and "total everyday
lying".
"I
started perestroika with myself, as Mikhail Gorbachev told us," he added,
referring to the economic reforms of the late Soviet era.
The World
Health Organisation last month said that Russia accounted for 60 percent of all
diagnoses of HIV in Europe in 2014, with heterosexual sex the main route of
transmission of the virus which is spread through contact with contaminated
body fluids.
A public
health campaign in Moscow urges people to be faithful to their partners, rather
than promoting condom use.
Russia also
does not approve methadone replacement therapy for drug addicts, which allows
them to stop injections, preventing them from contracting HIV from tainted
syringes.
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