The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe have published the latest data on HIV/AIDS surveillance in Europe.
According to the report, significant HIV transmission continues across the WHO European Region. In 2017, 159 420 newly diagnosed HIV infections were reported in 50 of the 53 countries of the WHO European Region, and about 130 000 of them appeared in Eastern Europe.
Rates of newly diagnosed HIV infections for 2017 varied significantly among countries in the WHO European Region, with the highest rates per 100 000 population observed in the Russian Federation (71.1), Ukraine (37.0), Belarus (26.1) and the Republic of Moldova (20.6). The predominant modes of transmission in these countries were heterosexual transmission and transmission through injecting drug use.
EU ountries with the highest rates of new HIV diagnoses reported in 2017 were Latvia (18.8) and Estonia (16.6), and the lowest rates were reported by Slovakia (1.3) and Slovenia (1.9).
Over the course of the last three decades, over 2.32 million people have been diagnosed and reported with HIV in the WHO European Region, including over 650 000 people in the EU/EEA. In 2017, the total number of HIV carriers reached 36.9 mln; 25.7 mln of them live in African countries, the WHO reports.
