1.5 million AIDS deaths worldwide per year

WHO: Every year tens of thousands of HIV infections in Europe

28/11/2014

Last year, 136,235 new HIV infections were registered in European countries, including Russia. The World Health Organization (WHO) Europe Regional Office said Thursday in Copenhagen in the run-up to World AIDS Day on 1 December. According to them, HIV infection continues to be high around thirty years after the discovery of the dangerous pathogen, despite major medical advances and prevention programs in Europe.

The number of new HIV infections is high, especially in Eastern Europe and Central Asia
„In 2013, more than 105,000 new cases of HIV in the European Region were reported in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA), more than 29,000 in the European Union and the European Economic Area (EEA) and some 2,000 in other countries outside the EU“, reports the WHO. Compared to 2004, there has been a tripling of new HIV cases in the EECA countries. Moreover, in the EU and EEA countries there was no decline in HIV diagnoses.

„The European Region has failed to meet the Millennium Development Goals target of halting and gradually reversing the spread of HIV / AIDS by 2015. The clock is gradually decreasing. As we face more and more new threats to health, we are again reminded that we should not go into inaction on HIV / AIDS“, warns Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe. „In Eastern Europe, where 77 percent of all new infections were reported, two-thirds of cases among injecting drug users were detected late. This means that they are at greater risk of transmitting HIV, will be more costly to treat, and more likely to die.“ The WHO has created new guidelines that allow countries to target those with the highest risk potential, such as drug users. „Through targeted action, we can turn the tide“, so Jakab.

Almost 80,000 new infections were registered in Russia alone. The rate of infection is lowest at 5.7 to 100,000 in the economically more developed EU and EEA states. Overall, however, the rate of HIV infections on the European continent together with Russia at 15.7 percent, the WHO said.

No major progress in reducing the number of HIV infections in Europe
„We need to ask ourselves why no significant progress has been made in reducing the number of HIV infections over the past decade. If we look at the data, we can clearly see that all parts of the European Region are not reaching the most vulnerable populations in terms of HIV infection, especially men with same-sex sexual contacts“, Explains Marc Sprenger, Head of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

In EU and EEA countries, HIV is most commonly transmitted through sexual contact between men. Last year, 42 percent of all new HIV diagnoses were due to this transmission pathway. „The number of HIV diagnoses in this group has risen by 33 per cent since 2004, with an increase with four exceptions in all EU and EEA countries. Therefore, the prevention and control of HIV among men with same-sex sexual contacts across the European Region must become a cornerstone of national HIV programs“, so Sprenger.

According to the United Nations (UN), "Worldwide 1.5 million people die as a result of AIDS, and 35 million women, men and children are currently infected with HIV," as the United Nations Anti-AIDS Program (UNAIDS ) recently informed. Should states provide the necessary funding for billions of programs to stem HIV, "the disease could be largely defeated within the next 15 years." (Ag)