Number of HIV-infected people grows in Europe

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) remains a big health problem in Europe, even if in some countries the number of infected people decreases, reads a report of the World Health Organization (WHO), quoted by Info-Prim Neo. Since 2000 till 2007, the annual rate of infections doubled: from 39 to 75 cases per one million of population. The biggest number of HIV infections was certified in 2007 in Estonia, Portugal, Moldova and Ukraine. Drug abuse through injecting remains the main way of transmitting HIV in the Eastern countries of Europe, and in central and Western Europe the disease is sexually transmitted. The incidence of falling ill among men, who have homosexual relations, has grown, as well. In the EU countries, the homosexual intercourses among men infect more persons than the heterosexual ones. In 2007, 26,279 cases of infecting with HIV in EU were diagnosed, the highest rates being recorded in Estonia, Latvia and Portugal, the lowest– in the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia. According to the official statistics, made public by the Health Ministry, in the first 9 months of this year, in Moldova, 602 new cases of HIV/AIDS have been recorded, compared to those 560 in the same period of 2007. Starting with 1987, when the first HIV case was recorded in Moldova, 4,733 persons, with the immunodeficiency virus, were traced out. The number of people, heterosexually infected, grew up to 69% in 2007, compared with 18.10% in 2001.