Central Europe Faces Explosion in AIDS Cases, Conference Told

Central and Eastern Europe is facing an explosion in the number of AIDS cases, according to a conference held in Berlin last week. Germany's eighth AIDS congress heard warnings from AIDS organizations that the number of cases across the former Soviet Union increased to 700,000 last year compared to 420,000 a year earlier. UNAIDS also talked about the growth of the disease in Central Europe. According to the UN, no other region of the world has experienced the growth of AIDS that Central Europe has.

German Health Minister Ulla Schmidt opened the congress and said that all nations, irrespective of their moral codes, should be urged to join the fight. "The global fight against AIDS can only be successful when every nation is prepared to admit its problem," she said.

Congress members also heard that the crucial problem in stopping the spread of AIDS was the growth in prostitution along Germany's borders with the Czech Republic and Poland. A program aimed at stemming prostitution and drug abuse along the German-Polish-Czech borders has been in place since 1994.

Berlin's Robert Koch Institute estimated that at the end of last year there were 37,000 people in Germany infected with HIV/AIDS. Groups working on AIDS in Germany have organized an action to highlight the risk of the disease, especially among young gay men having unprotected sex. The action's motto is: "Forgetting is contagious."

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