Registered HIV cases in Russia are snowballing, and the cash-strapped government is too poor to confront the health crisis, a senior health official said.

"That means people will simply die without treatment," said Vadim Pokrovsky, the head of the Federal AIDS Prevention Center.

Last year, 18,140 new cases of infection with HIV – the virus that causes AIDS – were registered; that's close to half of all the HIV cases registered in Russia since 1987.

Pokrovsky told a news conference that at least a two-fold increase is expected this year and that the registered number of cases is likely to be only one-fifth to one-tenth of the real number.

"That means that the real number of HIV cases may reach 300,000-400,000 by the end of this year. By 2005, we may have about 1 million cases – under an optimistic scenario," he said.

Intravenous drug users account for most of the new HIV cases, but the virus is rapidly spreading through sexual contact, Pokrovsky said.

"In some regions around Moscow, up to 5 percent of all young people have AIDS," he said. "According to estimates, up to 15 percent of Moscow prostitutes are infected with HIV."

The relatively small number of officially registered HIV cases has prompted a negligent attitude in the government, which has been slow to earmark funds for fighting the disease.

Officials have sometimes hampered privately funded AIDS prevention efforts. TV ads and billboards promoting the use of condoms have disappeared after authorities complained they were harming public morals, Pokrovsky said.

Currently, only the relatively rich Moscow city government can fully pay the bill for treating AIDS patients, while other regions provide only a fraction of funds needed to pay for expensive treatment.