AIDS and European Union Enlargement

Main Category: HIV / AIDS
Article Date: 23 Feb 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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Experts say that European governments should do something to help the new European Union (EU) countries tackle their growing HIV/AIDS rates now.

Countries such as Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have some of the worlds fastest growing rates of AIDS. These countries will be joining the EU this year.

The countries that are joining the EU will need financial and technical assistance if the enlarged EU wishes to stem the rapid spread of HIV and AIDS.

'There is no time to waste,' said Dr. Peter Piot, head of UNAIDS.

These are the countries that will be joining the EU this May:

- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Estonia
- Hungary
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Malta
- Poland
- Slovakia
- Slovenia

The Irish Republic, which currently holds the EU presidency, will host a conference of health ministers and HIV/AIDS experts. They will discuss the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic and its implications for the enlarged EU.

Dr Piot said 'European ministers must urgently scale up and roll out effective HIV prevention and treatment programmes. Given that the EU will form the biggest trading bloc in the world, covering more than 500m people, it is in the EU's best interest to prevent the Aids epidemic from crippling Europe's social and economic development.'

Western Europe has growing rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) while Eastern Europe has alarmingly fast growing rates of HIV/AIDS.

If the number of people in Western Europe that are having unprotected sex is rising, they could be increasing their chances of getting HIV/AIDS when the EU is enlarged.

In 1995 30,000 peop0le in Europe and Central Asia were HIV positive, now the number is 1,500,000.

The main causes seem to be dirty needles used for taking drugs, and unprotected sex.

Some say that people are having unprotected sex at an earlier age now.

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