AIDS Epidemic Sweeping Across Eastern Europe, Hitting Russia Hard, UN Report Says

The AIDS epidemic is sweeping across Eastern Europe, with HIV infection rates rising faster within the former Soviet Union than anywhere else in the world, according to the latest UN report on AIDS, published today. The combination of economic insecurity, high unemployment and deteriorating health services in this region are behind the steep rise, which shows no signs of abating, said UN officials in Moscow for the report's official launch.

"HIV/AIDS is unequivocally the most devastating disease we have ever faced, and it will get worse before it gets better," Peter Piot, executive director of the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS, wrote in the report, which is updated annually ahead of World AIDS Day, held every Dec. 1. In Russia, more than 75,000 new cases of HIV infection were reported by early November, compared to 56,000 new cases last year.

The UN report said that in Eastern Europe, as in the rest of the world, AIDS affects a disproportionate number of young people. The main method of transmission in the former Soviet Union is through injecting drugs. "It is a teenage epidemic -- teenagers experimenting with drugs, teenagers experimenting with sex," Piot said. Officials in Eastern Europe have blamed the epidemic's increase partly on the sudden opening of borders, growth of organized crime and weakened social services after the collapse of communist rule a decade ago. Many young people, feeling bored and uncertain about their future, turn to drugs or unprotected sexual encounters, officials said.

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