Surging Russian HIV Epidemic Drives Rise in New European Infections

With 1 million now living with the virus in Putin’s realm, the rate of new infections has more than doubled in the past decade.

January 17, 2017

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A fast-rising rate of new HIV diagnoses in Russia has driven an 8 percent one-year rise and a 60 percent 10-year rise in diagnosis rates in the World Health Organization (WHO) European region, aidsmap reports. In 2014, 60 percent of new HIV cases in the region were in Russia; that proportion rose to 64 percent in 2015.

The European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) and WHO Europe published these findings in their annual report on European HIV surveillance.

Between 2014 and 2015, the number of new HIV diagnoses in Russia rose 15 percent. The rate rose 57 percent since 2010 and 133 percent since 2006. More than 1 million people are living with the virus in the former Soviet nation.

The overall infection rate has remained about stable in recent years in Western Europe (including, per WHO, Israel and Greece) and in the European Union (EU), within which WHO includes Norway, Switzerland and Iceland. Western Europe reported 30,000 HIV diagnoses annually between 2010 and 2014 while the EU reported 32,500.

Central Europe has a low HIV prevalence but experienced a 78 percent rise in the annual number of new diagnoses between 2010 and 2015.

Men who have sex with men (MSM) make up an increasing proportion of new infections in Western and Central Europe.

In the Eastern European former Soviet states, excluding Russia, annual new diagnoses have remained stable or fallen slightly in recent years.

To read the aidsmap article, click here.

To read the report, click here.

Read more articles from POZ, here.