The Guardian Weekly (Thursday June 6 to Wednesday June 12) has an article headlined:

[quote]Growing Russian HIV epidemic threatens to spread to rest of Europe

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I couldn't find a link to an online version so I'll select an excerpt to transcribe:

..Researchers at Imperial College, London, have been studying the likely spread of HIV in Russia and have concluded that 5% of the adult population will be HIV-positive by 2007.

"This means four million adults will develop Aids," said one doctor, who added that there was no upper limit. "It could easily be a lot worse -at least double. And these people will die within 10 years."...

The story goes on to say that the World Bank has warned President Putin that the Russian economy would shrink by 4%. The infections were spread initially by drug users but now has expanded to heterosexual transmission and is spreading more rapidly.

It also says that treatment costs $10,000 dollars per patient [per year or month was not mentioned] and is funded by international donors. Also that in 1999 the CIA considered HIV a major security risk for the West and warned that by the end of 2002 two million Russian adults could be infected.

The article goes on to mention that there are now 195,000 registered cases of HIV in Russia and UNAids estimates that up to 1.2 million people may have the virus.

Truck routes, a major route of transmission, run through much of Europe from Russia and according to the story "Security experts are giving particular attention to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic coast. A confidential intelligence report estimates that Kaliningrad is home to 20% of Russia's HIV cases."

Personally I think this may become more important to us than anything a terrorist could come up with. Such a huge social and financial burden could have political consequences both within and outside Russia.

I agree that the spread of HIV--and related problems, like the rise in non-treatable tuberculosis, for example--poses a serious threat to Russia's democracy, and to the West. Other countries with exploding HIV problems include China (which is not dealing directly with rural AIDS) and India, which could in five years have more total AIDS cases, it's been estimated, than South Africa or several African nations combined. The World Health Organization, the U.N., the European Union, and especially the U.S.A., should make immediate efforts to address all of these crisis situations, because borders are now utterly permeable, and the threat of more societal disruption, especially in Russia, could prove deleterious to the rest of the globe.

Russia's unique and worrisome combo is nuclear waste, strategic location near/on worlds second largest oil reserves, political corruption and instability, proximity to (and vulnerability to) religiuos fundamentalists in south central asia and, perhaps most importantly, a still wounded pride at no longer being seen as the other superpower.

That said, I still believe that they have the potential to be a great world leader, if they return to the primal edict "From each according to the ability and to each according to the need" which I believe ultimately governs all human relations.

Hopefully this is the link to the article being referenced:

=> Guardian Link

[quote]Originally posted by Wurm:
Hopefully this is the link to the article being referenced:

=> Guardian Link

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The very one. Thanks WURM.