HIV infections in Europe are showing a worrying increase, the latest figures from the World Health Organisation’s regional office for Europe show. Despite the development of effective treatments, the HIV epidemic is still not under control, with 118 000 new cases diagnosed in 2010 in the 53 countries that make up WHO’s European region.

The figures, released for World Aids Day, come hard on the heels of data from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) that show there were 6660 newly diagnosed HIV infections in the UK in 2010. WHO says this is the highest number of new diagnoses in the European Union, and the third highest rate of new infections (10.7 per 100 000 population) after Estonia and Latvia.

“After 30 years of the epidemic, and unlike anywhere else in the world, HIV is not …