A well-known Russian television host announced live on air that he is HIV-positive, an unprecedented revelation in a country with rising infection rates but where HIV/AIDS remains a largely taboo subject. Pavel Lobkov, a presenter on the independent TV station Dozhd and a former news anchor on state television, made the announcement during a show on Tuesday evening, on World Aids Day. Russia has one of the highest rates of HIV infection in the world, with around 1,000 new cases diagnosed each month and a total of almost a million people known to be infected, with the real total likely to be much higher.