(AP) – The rate of HIV infection increased sharply in Eastern Europe and Central Asia in the last year, particularly among youths, the United Nations said Nov. 21.
Ukraine and Russia registered the largest number of new cases, while the Central Asian nation of Uzbekistan also saw a dramatic spike in HIV infection rates.
“The AIDS epidemic represents a challenge for this region,” UNAIDS official Flavio Mirella said in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, while presenting this year’s AIDS epidemic update report.
Within former Soviet bloc countries, some 270,000 people were newly diagnosed with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Some 62,000 in the region died from AIDS-related causes in 2004, the report said.
The region’s main problems in fighting the epidemic included a lack of medical treatment and a stigma facing those with HIV and AIDS, Mirella said. The spread of the disease has also been blamed on widespread intravenous drug use and commercial sex.
The overwhelming majority of Eastern Europeans infected with HIV were young, with 75 percent of infections reported in 2000-2004 among people under 30 years old.
Russia continues to have Europe’s largest number of HIV cases, with some 300,000 new cases registered by the end of 2004, the report said. The actual number, however, is believed to be much higher. An estimated 860,000 people in Russia had HIV in 2003.
The report cautioned that official statistics could be problematic, as they included only those patients who had contacted HIV testing programs. The stigma against both AIDS and homosexuality was contributing to the problem by keeping people from seeking information or help, the report said.
“People with HIV and AIDS don’t have the possibility to get even basic treatment and support” because of fears and ignorance about HIV, said Volodymyr Zhovtayk, head of the Eastern Europe and Central Asian Union of Organizations of People living with HIV.
The number of new HIV cases also increased in Ukraine – jumping by nearly 25 percent to 12,400 last year – despite stepped-up efforts to fight the disease.
“Each day eight Ukrainians die of AIDS,” the country’s Deputy Health Minister Viktor Veselskiy said. “Now we are realizing that it exists alongside us.”
Lars Kallings, a U.N. special envoy for HIV and AIDS in Eastern Europe, praised Ukraine’s President Viktor Yushchenko for his efforts to combat the epidemic, which was largely ignored by officials under former President Leonid Kuchma.
“I never met a leader of a country who is more concerned about AIDS than (Yushchenko),” Kallings said.
The former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan also experienced a dramatic increase in HIV and AIDS diagnoses, with 2,000 new cases last year bringing the total to 5,600. In 1999, the country had registered just 28 cases.
