Françoise F. Hamers, EuroHIV Project Leader, Institut
de Veille Sanitaire, Saint-Maurice, France
HIV is still one of the most important communicable diseases
in Europe. It is a long-term, life threatening condition that substantially
contributes to inequalities in health and is associated with high costs. In
the European Union, HIV transmission continues to occur at unacceptable rates,
the numbers of people living with HIV is increasing, and resistance to antiretroviral
drugs is probably increasing. EuroHIV (the European Centre for the Epidemiological
Monitoring of AIDS,
http://www.eurohiv.org)
has this month published its mid-year report for 2003 (1).
In western Europe, despite the wide availability of combination therapy,
reports of newly diagnosed HIV infections reported each year increased steadily
between 1997 and 2002 (+47%) and the trend continues in 2003. While HIV reports
have gradually decreased in injecting drug users in western Europe (-9% during
1997-2002), they increased markedly in persons infected through heterosexual
contact (+116%), largely due to an increase in the number of cases diagnosed
in people originating from countries outside Europe with generalised HIV epidemics.
In men who have sex with men, reports increased in 2002 (+22% compared with
2001) after a slow decline in previous years. AIDS incidence increased in
2002 after several years of continuing decline, while the number of AIDS deaths
continued to fall. The number of persons living with AIDS rose steadily in
western Europe to around 108 000 at 30 June 2003.
In eastern Europe, HIV reports among injecting drug users decreased for
the first time in 2002 (-53%) after several years of steep increase. HIV
infections attributed to heterosexual transmission, however, continued to
increase steadily (+31%). Most of these cases are in the sexual partners
of injecting drug users. There is a risk of further spread of HIV to the
wider heterosexual population. The Baltic states, which in 2004 accede to
the European Union (EU), are among the countries with the highest HIV report
rates.
Population migration from high prevalence countries outside Europe and
east-west migration within Europe play an increasing role in the epidemiological
situation in Europe, underlining the importance of a Europe-wide approach
to epidemiological surveillance.
EuroHIV was the first Europe-wide communicable disease surveillance network,
and has provided reliable, regularly updated and comparable data on HIV/AIDS
across Europe for 20 years. The production of HIV/AIDS figures across Europe
may however come to an end in 2004 due to discontinuation of funding by
the European Commission. Statistics on HIV/AIDS across Europe are essential
to public health and widely used in HIV/AIDS prevention, control and treatment
for EU citizens.
References:
- European Centre for the Epidemiological Monitoring of AIDS. HIV/AIDS
Surveillance in Europe. Mid-year report 2003. Saint-Maurice: Institut
de Veille Sanitaire; 2003. No. 69. (http://www.eurohiv.org/reports/report_69/pdf/draft_rep69.pdf)
[accessed 26 November 2003]
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