BMJ  2005;331:219 (23 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7510.219

Commentary

HIV is not just a transitional problem

Thomas E Novotny, director of international programmes1

1 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Institute for Global Health, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA tnovotny@psg.ucsf.edu

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The HIV and AIDS epidemic in eastern Europe and central Asia is changing.1-2 Despite data limitations, this region shows the fastest growth in HIV in the world.3 At the end of 2004, between 920 000 and 2.1 million people in the region were living with HIV, compared with about 160 000 in 1995. Most countries in the region have low level epidemics, with less than 1% prevalence among pregnant women and less than 5% prevalence among high risk groups. The countries most affected are Ukraine, Russia, and the Baltic states, but incidence is also increasing elsewhere. The driving force in most countries has been intravenous drug use, but other contributors include migration, commercial sex work, increasing rates of sexually transmitted infection, widening economic disparities, and multiple high risk behaviours among prison populations.

Rhodes and Simic describe in detail the risk environment that prevails in eastern Europe and the western Balkans.1 . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Impact of transition on public health in Ukraine: case study of the HIV/AIDS epidemic
Diane DeBell and Richard Carter
BMJ 2005 331: 216-219. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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