The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday it was concerned about the increase in undiagnosed human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections in the European region, which spans 53 countries, including Russia and the former Soviet republics.
Between 2018 and 2021, there were more infections in the region than people diagnosed, especially in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, while the trend is reversed in the European Economic Area (EEA).
“Yet one in eight people living with HIV in the EEA and the European Union (EU) remains undiagnosed,” the WHO warned in a report jointly prepared with the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) to mark World AIDS Day , celebrated on December 1.
Last year, nearly 300 cases of HIV were diagnosed daily in 46 of the 53 countries in the region, including 45 daily in the EU/EEA, totaling 106,508 cases across the region.
However, the WHO stressed that there was a sharp drop in the number of cases detected in 2020, which coincided with the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, and that the number of new cases diagnosed in 2021 is still 25 percent lower than pre-pandemic levels.
The report stressed the “critical” need to increase HIV testing to offset the negative impact of the pandemic on testing.
In Western Europe, cases of heterosexual transmission and sex between men have fallen significantly, as well as syringe sharing, but remain at high levels in the east of the continent.
“We should all be deeply concerned about the data on HIV testing, treatment and care in Europe and Central Asia. The widespread and persistent stigma surrounding HIV prevents people from getting tested and moves us away from the global goal to eradicate AIDS by 2030.” said WHO-Europe director Hans Kluge in a statement.
ECDC director Andrea Ammon warned in the same report that delaying diagnosis increases the chance of developing serious illness or death, as well as the risk of further spread of the virus.
Source: DN
