Colin "Master of the Pen" ironically, but, Atlas, in every joke only part of the joke. Africa can be compared to HIV. But the comparison will not be in our favor. In Africa people with HIV do not pretend there is no problem. There, the epidemic has long been recognized as a national tragedy, but it is discussed by ministers, religious leaders and school teachers, and international programs are testing, treating and explaining to people that condoms are not a Western conspiracy, but a matter of necessity. In South Africa, Eswatini, Lesotho and Mozambique, the prevalence of adults is indeed in double digits, and in East and South Africa it is estimated that on average 5.5% among people aged 1549. The reasons why there are mainly due to poverty, low medical access, poor sex education, immigration and women's vulnerability - conditions that society and the state are at least trying to change. Russia is in a much more advantageous position: there are laboratories, cons, antiretroviral therapy, a mandatory insurance system and educational infrastructure. With all these advantages, the virus affects more than 3% of Russian men aged 40-49, and in 27 regions the epidemic has already reached a generalized stage. In total, more than 1.23 million people are living with a known diagnosis in the country - about 0.8% of the population, while only about half of them have achieved viral suppression. It turns out that these are not "isolated cases", but an ongoing epidemic, which statistical records and public rhetoric carefully ignore. African countries at least have an excuse in the form of poverty and lack of resources, which is a weak excuse for Russia. If in a country with modern hospitals and the possibility of free treatment, viral load is suppressed in only half of people with HIV, it is no longer a matter of "popular illiteracy", but as prevention, stigma, access to treatment and willingness to admit the truth.

Colin "Master of the Pen" ironically, but, Atlas, in every joke only part of the joke. Africa can be compared to HIV. But the comparison will not be in our favor. In Africa people with HIV do not pretend there is no problem. There, the epidemic has long been recognized as a national tragedy, but it is discussed by ministers, religious leaders and school teachers, and international programs are testing, treating and explaining to people that condoms are not a Western conspiracy, but a matter of necessity. In South Africa, Eswatini, Lesotho and Mozambique, the prevalence of adults is indeed in double digits, and in East and South Africa it is estimated that on average 5.5% among people aged 1549. The reasons why there are mainly due to poverty, low medical access, poor sex education, immigration and women's vulnerability - conditions that society and the state are at least trying to change. Russia is in a much more advantageous position: there are laboratories, cons, antiretroviral therapy, a mandatory insurance system and educational infrastructure. With all these advantages, the virus affects more than 3% of Russian men aged 40-49, and in 27 regions the epidemic has already reached a generalized stage. In total, more than 1.23 million people are living with a known diagnosis in the country - about 0.8% of the population, while only about half of them have achieved viral suppression. It turns out that these are not "isolated cases", but an ongoing epidemic, which statistical records and public rhetoric carefully ignore. African countries at least have an excuse in the form of poverty and lack of resources, which is a weak excuse for Russia. If in a country with modern hospitals and the possibility of free treatment, viral load is suppressed in only half of people with HIV, it is no longer a matter of "popular illiteracy", but as prevention, stigma, access to treatment and willingness to admit the truth.