Eastern Europe blighted by Aids epidemic

Tuesday, 24 February 2004 1:14 AM

EU ministers and experts met at Dublin Castle yesterday to discuss ways to combat the growing problem of HIV/Aids.

Peter Piot, executive director of the UN Aids body (UNAIDS), told an audience of experts from 55 nations that the virus was spreading faster in Eastern Europe and Central Asia than anywhere else in the world.

The UN, World Bank and Global Fund have jointly said they want HIV prevention and treatment programmes increased across the EU.

From May 1st, ten accession countries - mainly from the old Soviet bloc - will join the European Union, signalling a massive increase of itinerant labour flows across the continent.

Western Europe was therefore not immune to Aids, Mr Poit warned, as the deadly virus was one of the "greatest social and political challenges" facing the expanded European Union.

A "major epidemic" of heroin use among young people and teenagers in Eastern Europe was pushing up HIV infections, he said.

The UN estimates that a quarter of a million people have been infected with the disease in Eastern Europe and Central Asia in the last year.

It is estimated some 1.5 million people are currently infected with Aids in these areas, with Africa "bearing the brunt" of the epidemic, with 75 per cent of the world's 40 million HIV/Aids sufferers living there.

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