HIV is a major infection in Eastern Europe

More than 130,000 new HIV cases were reported in Eastern Europe and Central Asia in 2017, the highest incidence in the region, with fewer injuries in Western Europe. The 2018 report on AIDS in Europe (data 2017), published by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control and the Regional Office of the World Health Organization for Europe (WHO), was worried about the fact that he was "uncontrollable". The virus has infected about 160,000 people in Europe in 2017, while transmission of the virus is a major public health problem in the region and affects about 2 million people.

According to recent data from the World Health Organization, some 37 million people in the world are living with HIV, while 9.4 million do not know that they are infected and 1.8 million have In particular, the lack of awareness of infected persons increases the transmission of infection to others.

Professor of Infectious Diseases Jens Lundgren at the Royal National Hospital in Copenhagen finds that alarming numbers are not the ones known, but those who are unknown. Many people do not realize that they are infected with the virus. Lundgren, co-author of the report of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control and the Regional Office for Europe of the World Health Organization, estimates that "the number of infections recorded l & # 39; Last year, estimated at 130,000, could actually be twice as high as those who were infected without being diagnosed. "

World AIDS Day in Denmark (Getty)

New old problem
"The spread of the virus in Eastern Europe and Central Asia is an old problem," said Lundgren.The general trend in Eastern Europe is to spread the spread of infection over the last 15 years, compared to the previous one. " "The spread of a habit in young people in recent years, with the ease of using heroin from Afghanistan, the injection of the drug is used collectively, which will contribute to the transmission of infection more widely. " Lundgren notes that statistics are available in Western Europe since the 1980s, but that "the Soviet rule in Eastern Europe and Central Asia prevented the counting of the wounded and that it was only possible to return in 1995 to detect an infection. between 1998 and 2000 after the spread of heroin among the young. "

For the most affected countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the report states that "Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan are the most affected". "The treatment rooms in St. Petersburg today are similar to our hospital departments (Danish) of the 1990s, before treatment, because it is possible to see groups of people, especially young people," Lundgren said. . "In December 2017, Ukraine adopted a very ambitious and comprehensive plan to fight HIV / AIDS, which high-need countries need." Lundgren said, adding that "the spread of the virus, despite the that the authorities keep the figures to a minimum in their statistics ".

Non-governmental organizations and institutions are inefficient and are created by political orders and not by the needs of society. The Russian government does not consider them a priority of society. "He said.

… in Austria (Joe Clamart / AFP)

Infections … these are their causes
The same report describes the causes of contagion in Europe in 2017, in the west, east and west. Sex between heterosexuals and homosexuals is the primary cause of transmission, although proportions vary between Western, Eastern and Central Europe. While homosexual sex is 39.7% in Western Europe, 28.4% is in the center, while in the East – the authors say that Russian figures are not available – represent only about 4%. With regard to sexually transmitted infections among heterosexuals, the rate of infection was high in Eastern Europe (33.7% for men and 39.7% for women), compared to around 16% in the United States. European Union for both sexes.

Drug abuse, particularly by injection, is a second cause of transmission in Europe, with an average of 37% for the EU countries and 24% for Eastern Europe. The diagnosis of the causes of "unknown" infection seems to be the most important in Central Europe, with 41%, while the overall rate for the EU is around 24% and the transmission to children of less than 1% mothers Most parts of the continent.

Eastern Europe seems to be the hardest hit with 10.2 infections per 100 000 inhabitants on average, while the European Union and Central Europe register less than 0.7 per 100 000 inhabitants. Although the 2016 report recorded a decrease in the number of victims compared to 2010, Eastern Europe and Central Asia have generally increased over the past two years.

The same report indicates that during the past year, the WHO recorded 159,420 infections in the Europe region, with Eastern European countries accounting for 130,863 or 82% of total infection, compared with 14% in Western Europe. With 22,354 wounded and 4% in Central Europe with 6,000 and 205 wounded.

The report published by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control and the Regional Office for Europe of the World Health Organization concluded a significant increase in the number of people infected with HIV in the region highlighting that this rate had risen to 20 per 100,000 people. The authors of the report indicate that the share of the Russian Federation and Ukraine accounts for 75% of the total number of injuries in the European region.

… in Greece (Getty)

Different data
HIV infection is prevalent in the south-east region of Africa, with more than 19 million infections, but the global increase in documented and convincing infections, which experts say is not understood, is of concern to global health organizations. With more than two million in Europe and Central Asia and more than five million in Asia and the Pacific. The concern is that the infection may turn into a pandemic in Europe, with no possibility of treatment in its Central and East Asian countries, while experts fear the repercussions on the economies of these countries.

According to recent data, out of this total, 2.1 million children were infected with HIV, most of them through their parents infected during pregnancy, the most likely to be infected with HIV. childbirth or breastfeeding. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) notes that "advances in medicine since 2010 have helped reduce mother-to-child transmission."

On the other hand, according to the organization, the proportion of deaths among people living with AIDS has halved since 2005. According to data from 2017, about 940,000 people would have died. HIV / AIDS experts and researchers are talking about 19 million people who had access to treatment in early 2017, more than two million more than the year before.