Europe's HIV infection rate doubles in 8 years

Published on Tuesday 1 December 2009 21:59

THE pace of HIV diagnoses more than doubled in Europe between 2000 and 2008, new figures show.

The study, released to mark World Aids Day, found that almost 51,600 people were newly diagnosed with HIV in 2008.

HIV rates are highest in the UK, Estonia, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Portugal, Moldova and Ukraine. The infection rate rose from 44 cases per million people to 89 cases per million people across 43 countries, according to the report from the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Europe and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Among new diagnoses in 2008, 13 per cent were in people aged 15 to 24 while 35 per cent were in women.

The main method of transmission of HIV in eastern European countries is injecting drug use while in the centre and west it is sex between men, followed by heterosexual contact.

Dr Nata Menabde, deputy regional director of the WHO Regional Office for Europe, said: "

Good surveillance systems, and better and more accurate data collection, will help us control the HIV epidemic."