Number of HIV Cases in Lithuania Doubles After Prison Outbreak

The outbreak of HIV in Lithuania's Alytus prison last year doubled the number of people infected in the Baltic country, the Lithuania AIDS center said Thursday. On Jan. 1, 2002, there were 338 HIV cases in the country of 3.5 million people, a figure that rose to 735 cases at the beginning of 2003, the center said. Last summer, 299 out of 1,900 inmates at Alytus were found to be HIV-positive during blood tests conducted in the prison. Doctors said the prisoners had contracted the virus through intravenous drug use. Despite this, Lithuania still has one of the lowest HIV infection rates in Europe -- considerably lower than its two neighboring Baltic states. Estonia at the end of 2002 had 2,783 HIV cases, while Latvia had 2,311 cases, according to data presented by the Lithuanian center.

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