The Russian government will allocate one billion rubles ($39.4 million) to develop a vaccine for HIV, Russia`s chief doctor said Thursday.

"The government will soon issue a decree allocating one billion rubles to boost current research for a HIV vaccine," Gennady Onishchenko said.

He said four leading Russian research institutes will take part in the three-year project, including the Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology in Novosibirsk, and the Institute of Immunology in Moscow.

Russia plans to double the number of infected people receiving antiretroviral therapy and to increase the number of those being tested for the virus from 21.7 million to 22 million, Onishchenko said.

Since 1987 when the first HIV case was first reported in Russia, 388,871 cases have been registered, and women infected with the virus have given birth to 1,200 children. Among the most infected areas are the Moscow, Irkutsk, Samara, Orenburg, and Leningrad Regions.
sections: Nature & Health