01.12.2017  School of Medical Science hosted a conference dedicated to World AIDS Day

The conference dedicated to World AIDS Day has been organized by the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases since 1999. It is traditionally attended by the faculty members of the department, staff members of the Novgorod Center for the Prevention and Control of AIDS and Infectious Diseases “Helper”, as well as students of the medical and biological school - more than 100 people in total.

“The most important thing in control of a disease is the prevention of HIV infection, this requires a high degree of people's awareness - this is the knowledge of symptoms, ways of transmission, where to turn to determine the infection and its consequences. To know is to live!” - Georgy Arkhipov, the chair of the department, defined the main goal of such meetings. Within the framework of the conference, a questionnaire was conducted to assess the level of students' awareness of the prevention of HIV infection. its results will be known at the end of December.

Judging by the numbers, it is really important to know about preventive measures. According to Tatiana Tkachenko, deputy chief physician of the Center “Helper”, the total number of newly registered cases of HIV infection in the region was 3,431 people as of November 1. In the 10 months of 2017, 245 new HIV infections are registered in the region, which is 5.3% higher than in the same period in 2016.  Data on age, sex and the method of infection have changed for 10 years – previously, most often HIV infection was detected in men aged 20 to 30 years and transmitted through the introduction of drugs, but now women are becoming infected more often. The age of the sick has also changed, it has grown to 30 - 45 years, and HIV is transmitted more sexually.

15 reports on the most topical issues were presented at the conference: methods of laboratory diagnosis of HIV, methods and ways of HIV infection prevention, etc.

On November 27 - December 3, an action called "Stop HIV / AIDS" is taking place in Russia. The action is timed to coincide with the World AIDS Day and is intended to inform people on a wide range of HIV issues, as well as to fight against denial of the existing problem and discrimination.

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