HIV On The Rise Across Europe

AIDS cases up 113% since 2012 in Eastern Europe

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About 131,000 people contracted HIV in Europe in 2012, representing an 8 percent increase from the year before, according to a new report by the WHO and the European Center for Disease Control.

Eastern Europe and Central Asia saw a 9 percent increase in reported HIV cases, with over half the new cases (76,000) coming out of Russia alone, the Independent reports. In much of the former Soviet Bloc, the number of people diagnosed with AIDS has increased 113 percent from 2006 to 2012, yet AIDS cases in Western Europe decreased by 48 percent over the same period.

Experts are now calling for free condoms and easy HIV testing, free clean needles and syringes, and early access to AIDS treatment across Eastern Europe.

[The Independent]