HIV in Central Asia

The most recent outbreaks in the region are to be found in Central Asia, where reported HIV infections have grown dramatically from 88 in 1995 to 5,458 in 2002. This is mainly due to the sharp rise in infections recorded in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. HIV has now spread to all regions of Kazakhstan, while the majority of cases reported in Kyrgyzstan are concentrated in the Osh region, which serves as a drug transit route for neighbouring countries. Given that the five Central Asian republics are located on both sides of major drug trafficking routes into the Russia federation and Europe, it is no surprise that the majority of infections currently are related to injecting drug use. Indeed, in some parts, heroin is now believed to be cheaper than alcohol. As elsewhere in the region, young people are the worst affected, with those on the margins of the economy particularly vulnerable. In Kazakhstan, for example, three quarters of people diagnosed with HIV were unemployed.

Although overall numbers of infections remain low, HIV spread continues at an alarming pace in the Baltic States. At 2,528 in 2002, the total number of HIV diagnoses in Latvia has risen five-fold since 1999. Just four years ago, Estonia reported 12 new HIV cases: in 2002, 899 people were newly diagnosed with the virus. Lithuania is on a similar path. There, the 72 new HIV cases detected in 2001 increased more than five-fold in 2002. Lithuania appears to be facing two distinct epidemics - one affecting mainly injecting drug users in regions bordering Kalingrad (Russia) and the other spreading among men who have sex with men in Vilnius.

In Ukraine, the number of diagnosed infections has jumped from virtually zero before 1995 to around 20,000 a year from 1996 onwards, about 80% of the infections occurring in injecting drug users. A total of more than 57,140 people had been officially diagnosed with HIV by the end of 2002. Belarus has been affected by the same trends in the HIV epidemic as the other countries in the region. By the end of 2002, Belarus had had a total of 5,101 people diagnosed with HIV.