Russian Google Searches for HIV Tests Soar by 5,000% After Influential Blogger’s Doc

Moscow Times ^ | Feb 2020

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Russians flocked to Google for information about HIV tests after an influential YouTuber’s documentary shed light on the scale of the country’s HIV epidemic this week.

Journalist Yury Dud’s two-hour documentary addresses what he refers to as an ignored issue that “affects each and every one” of his millions of subscribers. Almost 8 million people viewed Dud’s HIV documentary in the 48 hours since it went online Tuesday.

“We filmed this episode to add knowledge and make life a little easier for those with HIV,” Dud says in the video.

The number of searches for Russian-language terms relating to HIV tests was up by a combined 5,500% around the world by Wednesday evening, according to a Google Trends screenshot shared by Ukrainian HIV campaigner Inna Gavrilova. She attributes the spike in users’ interest to Dud’s popularity.

HIV was Russia’s second-most-searched term on Tuesday, the day Dud’s documentary came out.

More than 1 million people in Russia live with HIV and a record 37,000 people died from HIV-related illnesses there in 2019.

The World Health Organization warned that Russia risked developing an out-of-control HIV epidemic after data showed a record number of new cases in 2017. Most came from heterosexual sex as the disease spread outside high-risk groups.

Russia’s Health Ministry has argued that the increase in Russia's HIV-positive population indicates that fewer people die from complications linked with the disease.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Now almost doubled in views since article was written. Yury Dud took the internet by storm last year after airing a landmark doc (with English subtitles) about the Gulag and modern Russia's coverup of Stalin's legacy.

[Boogieman]

Wait, I thought Putin said there were no homos in Russia.

[DoughtyOne]

If the wrong people donate blood, anyone who gets a transfusion or
blood factors can be at risk.

Not sure what the state of the art is in these areas are these days
though. It may not be as bad as this makes it sound, with new technologies
possibly having been implemented.

[MrEdd]

No, he said homosexual marriage wouldn’t be legalised.
Perhaps that decision was made due to national health reasons rather than moral or ethical ones.

[NorseViking]

The vast majority of HIV-cases in Russia are among people shooting drugs in late 1990s heroin boom.

[central_va]

Put these up all of Russia.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Yep. Poland was having a problem during the time we visited.

[dp0622]

Wow that’s awful.

[NorseViking]

Homosexuality exists in Eastern Europe but not widespread and the homosexuals seem like more responsible. Their input in HIV problem is minor.
Heroin addicts are mostly responsible and since they are largely asocial it rarely expands outside their group.
Not to mention in Russia the herion boom has finally caused draconian legal response. It would be correct to say that the police wiped out heroin dealers as a class like 15 to 10 years ago and you don’t see addicts anymore too.

[VanShuyten]

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., one out of 15-20 residents aged 15 to 60 is HIV+.

[Svartalfiar]

More than 1 million people in Russia live with HIV and a record 37,000 people died from HIV-related illnesses there in 2019.

Well that's not correct. HIV is one of the few things that cannot kill you. Yea, once you have it it'll definitely be a factor, but by itself it will not kill you. You have to get some other infection to take advantage of your lack of immune system.

[ConservativeMind]

LOL! I need to print some copies of that.

[NorseViking]

Let’s say that the effects of HIV are indeed fatal. Before advanced anti-virus therapy it killed a number of people.
It still kills people who can’t afford therapy.

[Svartalfiar]

Let’s say that the effects of HIV are indeed fatal. Before advanced anti-virus therapy it killed a number of people. It still kills people who can’t afford therapy.

Oh, I'm not saying that getting HIV doesn't mean you aren't gonna die soon, all I'm saying is that HIV, in and of itself, CANNOT kill you. It needs a partner to do the job, it's just an accessory. Slash instigator.