HIV in Eastern Europe: more infections than ever

"They have HIV." This message received more than 130,000 people in Eastern Europe last year. This is the largest number of HIV diagnoses ever made in the region. In Western Europe, however, the number of infections is declining, according to a recent report from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

The report covers 53 countries in which nearly 900 million people live. In Western and Eastern Europe, together, nearly 160,000 people have been diagnosed with HIV in 2017.

HIV diagnoses in Europe 2017

Number of diagnoses per 100,000 inhabitants

The HIV epidemic has spread in Eastern Europe for years. On the positive side, the number of cases in 2017 has not been as strong as the year before, according to the report. Between 2007 and 2016, the number of diagnoses in Eastern Europe increased by 95%. Between 2008 and 2017, the increase was only 68%.

"It's hard to say good news for another year of excessively high infection rates," said Zsuzsanna Jakap, director of the WHO Regional Office for Europe.

A major problem is that many people with the disease learn about their infection late. Every two seconds, the disease was at an advanced stage at the time of diagnosis. This increases the risk that those affected have transmitted the virus. In addition, a late diagnosis complicates the treatment.

New HIV diagnosis: virtually no complaints in years

If a person is infected with HIV, the viruses in his body multiply explosively during the first few days. During this period – but only in a quarter of those affected – symptoms such as fever, joint pain, swollen lymph nodes and an inflamed mucous membrane can easily be mistaken for flu.

This is often followed by a one – year phase during which the infection is not noticeable. It is only after this period of latency that the weakening of the immune system causes significant symptoms, then AIDS is declared. For this reason, all people at risk of infection should be tested regularly for HIV, even if they feel healthy.

If the disease is detected early and systematically treated, the amount of virus in the body can be so reduced that it is no longer detectable in the tests and that the affected people are no longer contagious. But HIV does not cure until today. If patients die as a result of their medications, the number of viruses in their body increases as quickly as after a new infection.

Danger for a "crisis of historical proportions"

Already this summer, the United Nations AIDS organization, Unaids, said the cuts in funding were jeopardizing the global fight against the HIV epidemic. The alarming increase in new infections in some areas, coupled with the growth of young people, could lead to a "historic crisis," warned US expert on AIDS, Mark Dybul, on the eve of the conference on AIDS, held in Amsterdam in July. In addition to Eastern Europe, he also mentioned the countries of Asia.

Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, more than 77 million people worldwide have been infected with HIV. Nearly half of those affected – 35.4 million – died of AIDS.

In Germany, too, an estimated 13,000 people with HIV know nothing about their infection. Since this year, home self-tests have been approved and can be sold in pharmacies, drugstores and on the Internet. However, these only give reliable results three months after the infection.