As members of the international scientific community, we are greatly concerned about the AIDS Bill the State Duma adopted on November 11th, and more specifically, about art.9 which provides that HIV screening will be compulsory for all foreigners entering Russia.

This decision is in full contrast with the recommendations of the World Health Organization ( of which Russia is a Member State) and to the European Union directives. Furthermore, these measures are ineffective from the point of view of HIV prevention and are prejudicial to the rights of individuals.

On the contrary, financial resources, rather than being devoted to pointless and detrimental activities, should be allocated to those actions in the fields of prevention and care that have proven effective and should be expanded.

We sincerely hope the Russian Federation Council will reject the AIDS Bill as adopted by the Duma, thus avoiding the implementation of a measure expected to be detrimental to the control of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, in Russia and in the rest of the world.

Dr.Daniel Tarantola, M.D.

Global AIDS Policy Coalition

Harvard School of Public Health

Scientific editor of "AIDS in the World"

Sofia Gruskin, JD, MIA

François Xavier Bagnoud Fellow

in Health and Human Rights

Harvard School of Public Health

Dr.Giovanni Rezza

Director of COA - Centro Operativo AIDS

Istituto Superiore di Sanità

Roma

Dr.Giuseppe Ippolito

Director of CRA - Centro Riferimento AIDS

Ospedale Spallanzani

Roma