Aids 'could affect 5% of Russians'

Health experts in Russia have warned the country could be facing an HIV epidemic on a scale seen in some parts of Africa.

Up to one in 20 Russian adults could be infected with the HIV virus that leads to Aids within the next five years; experts say this could have a drastic effect on the population, economy and social life of Russia.

Up to now most of those affected have been intravenous drug users, but the virus is now spreading at a worrying rate amongst heterosexuals.

The BBC Moscow correspondent says warnings of an Aids crisis have so far gone unheeded because relatively few people have died of the disease in Russia.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service