MOSCOW, July 31. /TASS/. More than 20,000 HIV-positive Russians died in 2018, with the death toll related to this infection growing 2.2% year-on-year, a report of the Russian Health Ministry’s research center revealed on Wednesday.

"In 2018, some 20,597 people died of HIV infection, and this is 14 cases per 100,000 citizens," according to the report, titled "Epidemic Situation on HIV infection in Russia in 2018," which was published on the website of the ministry’s Central Scientific and Research Institute for Informing Population.

The death toll from HIV infection in Russia grew 2.2% year-on-year. In 2017, 20,045 HIV-infected people died.

The share of HIV infection as the cause of deaths among Russian citizens from infections and parasitic diseases, has been growing: from 3.9% in 2005 to 57.2% in 2017 and 59.5% in 2018, the survey showed.