MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia came under fire from international AIDS campaigners on Wednesday for refusing to provide drug users with drug substitution therapy to stem a spreading HIV epidemic.
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Russia's chief medical official Gennady Onishchenko told a major AIDS conference that Moscow opposed providing methadone -- a synthetic drug that is not injected -- to heroin users.
He said that Russia preferred to use other methods in fighting the spread of HIV, including calling on the authority of the increasingly powerful Russian Orthodox Church.
"Russia speaks out categorically against this component in prevention programmes," Onishchenko told the Eastern Europe and Central Asia AIDS Conference, adding that methadone is outlawed in Russia.
But in a country where 500,000 people are infected with the HIV virus, international speakers at the conference expressed disappointment that Russia could be ignoring a potentially crucial method to stem the spread of HIV.
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