WHO and ECDC launches the HIV/AIDS surveillance report for the European Region
January 5th, 2009
At the beginning of December 2008, World Health Organization (WHO) - Europe and si European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) launched a report on the HIV/AIDS surveillance in the European region.
The document - the first document as such elaborated in collaboration with the two prestigious medical institutions - provides new data on the HIV evolution in 2007:
- In the Western Europe the main transmission way is the sexual one among men having sex with men. As for the Eastern Europe, the HIV is still mainly transmitted among the injection drug users and their partners;
- Although not all the European countries systematic report the number of HIV infected people, in 2007 were registered 48.892 new cases, in 49 out of 53 countries included in the WHO's European region;
- The highest incidence occurs in Estonia, Ukraine, Portugal and Moldavia (there are not included reporting dates from Austria, Italia, Monaco and Russian Federation);
- Out of the new cases, approximately 26.279 had been reported by the EU and EFTA states, the highest incidence rates were registered in Estonia, Portugal and Lithuania. Among the lowest incidence level for 2007 are shown in Slovakia, Czech Republic and Romania;
- In the EU and EFTA states, the main HIV transmission way is the sexual one (MSM=men having sex with men), being followed by the heterosexual transmission. Approximately 40% of the new cases of heterosexual transmission are people originally from the countries with HIV generalization;
- As an overview, the number of new HIV cases increased while the number of new AIDS cases slightly decreased. Even though, the number of AIDS cases in Eastern Europe is increasing.
The report, a real useful resource for specialists in epidemiology and infections, organizations and institutions developing HIV/AIDS programs, is available at http://www.euro.who.int/eprise/main/WHO/Progs/SHA/publications/20081203_1
