MOSCOW — The Russian Orthodox Church has launched a new program aimed at preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS in Russia, where experts are predicting an epidemic of the disease similar to the situation in Africa.
The program will see priests give spiritual guidance to HIV/AIDS patients and their families, as well as practical assistance in hospitals and prisons. Churches will also set up hotlines and consultation centers. Priests will be instructed to treat people with the disease “as any other person suffering from some serious illness” and will be encouraged to promote tolerance for patients in their congregations, Father Vladimir Shmaly said Sept. 6.
The program also calls for promoting religious values to prevent the spread of the disease, including discouraging sex with multiple partners, drug use and homosexuality.
Government officials welcomed the church’s participation in fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS. Alexander Goliusov, an HIV/AIDS expert with the Federal Consumer Rights and Public Well-Being watchdog group, called the church’s program “an historic step in combating the spread of the epidemic.”
Critics have attacked Russian authorities and the church for being slow to respond to the country’s growing HIV/AIDS problem. Russia has the largest HIV/AIDS epidemic in Europe, with more than 1 million people infected, according to various studies. Initially seen in Russia as a disease that affected only intravenous drug users, HIV/AIDS is increasingly spreading to the general population. Infection rates are higher in Russia than anywhere outside sub-Saharan Africa, and experts predict more than 5 million Russians could die of the disease in the next 20 years.
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