Former Soviet Union sees most new HIV infections: report

Former Soviet Union sees most new HIV infections: report
LONDON (Reuters) - Former Soviet states had the largestnumber of new HIV infections last year in the European region,mainly due to shared drug needles, an EU report said on Friday.
Former Soviet states reported 59,866 new cases of HIV,which causes AIDS, or 210.8 infections per million people, theEuropean Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said.
That was more than all the new cases in Western and CentralEurope combined. The report defined Eastern Europe as the 15countries of the former Soviet Union.
"Although this rate is lower than the epidemic peakobserved in 2001, the number of reported new HIV ... diagnoseshas increased in recent years," the EU agency said.
"Over a quarter of the new HIV diagnoses were among youngpeople aged 15-24 years and 41 percent of the cases werereported amongst females."
Earlier this week, the United Nations slashed its estimatesof how many people globally are infected with the AIDS virusfrom nearly 40 million to 33 million, mainly due to revisedfigures for India.
The agency also said the evidence showed the epidemic iscreeping back in countries that have become less vigilant,mainly industrialized nations where many people with AIDS haveaccess to drugs that can extend their lives.
In the EU study, Western Europe reported 25,241 new HIVcases, a rate of 82.5 infections per million, while CentralEuropean countries had 1,805 HIV cases, or 9.4 infections permillion. Heterosexual contact was the main driver oftransmission in those areas.
The agency also estimated about 30 percent of people livingwith HIV in Europe are unaware they are infected, which meansthey likely engage in risky behavior that can spread the virus.
"It is anticipated that higher testing rates across Europewill link more HIV infected people to prevention and treatmentservices," the study said.
(Reporting by Michael Kahn, editing by Michael Winfrey)