Europe Tuberculosis, HIV Crisis Looms, Red Cross Chief Warns

HIV and TB infections are rising rapidly in the former Eastern Bloc and, unless action is taken to fight them, all of Europe is at risk of a major health crisis, according to the president of the German Red Cross. Knut Ipsen, speaking at the European Regional Red Cross and Red Crescent Conference this week in Berlin, said that while Africa and Asia have the highest number of AIDS cases, the former Eastern Bloc has the fastest growth rate, with 250,000 new cases in 2001.

Some 30,000 people die each year from TB in Russia, which in 2000 was seen in 90.7 per 100,000 people, double the European average, Ipsen said. This could spell problems for Western Europe, which is being flooded with impoverished East Europeans migrating to Western Europe to seek jobs, he noted. "We are standing in front of a creeping crisis," he warned. "Without corresponding [healthcare] programs millions of people in Europe will die from the rapidly rising number of HIV infections combined with tuberculosis." Luebbo Roewer, a German Red Cross spokesperson, said that Ipsen believes the number of deaths could be two million in all of Europe in the coming years unless preventive action is taken.

One of the goals of this week's conference is to develop an action plan with uniform European standards. The plan will be released today. Roewer said another conference goal is to sound a warning bell to Western European governments, organizations and citizens. "People in Western Europe are mostly ignoring the danger of this health crisis," he said. "They think a health crisis like this is far away in Asia and Africa, not in Europe."

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