Europe Needs To Step Up Fight Against Increasing Number of HIV Infections, Piot Warns

The number of HIV infections across Europe is increasing and countries need to boost their fight against the disease, UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot said Monday during a visit to Portugal, AFP/Yahoo! News reports. According to European Union statistics, the number of newly reported HIV cases in the E.U. has almost doubled since 1996, with the greatest increase observed in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. "There is an increase in the number of new cases all over western Europe, so we need to wake up again," Piot said (AFP/Yahoo! News, 10/3). Last year, the European Commission warned that the HIV/AIDS epidemic was worsening in the region and called on member nations to increase efforts in the fight against the disease (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 9/9/2004). Health officials say teenagers and people in their early 20s are particularly vulnerable because they did not live through the first wave of HIV/AIDS campaigning more than 10 years ago (AFP/Yahoo! News, 10/3).