Europe ‘complacent’ over AIDS despite threat from new borders

By David Cronin

Date: 29/04/04

AN "EXPLODING epidemic" of HIV infection in the Baltic states and countries neighbouring the enlarged EU represents one of the biggest challenges for the Union, according to the head of the main body at the forefront of the struggle against AIDS.

"HIV doesn't recognize customs posts or frontiers; it travels very easily," said Richard Feachem, director of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

"The EU faces an exploding epidemic of HIV and TB on its borders," he told European Voice. "This is both within some of the accession countries - such as the Baltic states - but also on its eastern borders."

The factors behind the rising infection rates include high intravenous drug use and the growing size of the sex trade "including how these countries act as a conduit for the sex trade travelling from east to west", Feachem explained.

His warning follows the major conference on AIDS in eastern Europe and central Asia, organized by Ireland's EU presidency in February.

A study prepared for the Dublin event noted that "a relatively new phenomenon in these countries - injecting drug use - has taken hold amid jolting social change, widening inequalities and the consolidation of transnational drug-trafficking networks in the region".

As many as 1.8 million people in eastern Europe and central Asia were believed to carry the HIV virus at the end of last year, with up to 280,000 new infections in 2003 alone. That represents the fastest-growing AIDS crisis in the world.

According to the current issue of medical journal The Lancet, the ballooning AIDS crisis has been largely overlooked during the EU's enlargement process.

"The principle of subsidiarity demands that the EU should only undertake activities when the benefits of its action are greater than those achieved by member states acting alone," it said. "Unfortunately, this provision has long been used by member states to constrain the ability of the EU to act in the area of public health."

Feachem also referred to how the EU's current member states have become "shockingly complacent" about the risks posed by AIDS.

"Because HIV and AIDS treatment is now widely available in western Europe and North America - and therefore the death rates have fallen - the shock has gone out of the epidemic and complacency has developed," he explained.

"Yet the epidemic in every European country has been growing steadily. It is becoming less and less a gay man's disease and more and more a heterosexual disease, with a preponderance of women and girls affected."

Based in Geneva, the Global Fund was established in January 2002 to spearhead international efforts against AIDS.

Although Feachem said that officials in the European Commission have shown leadership in fighting AIDS, some EU countries have only contributed small sums to the fund.

Greece has contributed just €250,000, Portugal €340,000 and Austria €1 million. In total, donors - government and private sector - have made pledges of almost €3 billion up to the end of this year.

"There is no doubt that Europe can do much more and needs to do much more," added Feachem.

Article looks at the increasing incidence of AIDS in the Baltic States and countries bordering the EU in Eastern Europe.

http://ec.europa.eu/comm/health/ph_overview/previous_programme/com_diseases/commdiseases_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/comm/health/ph_overview/previous_programme/com_diseases/commdiseases_en.htm

http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/ http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/

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