Botkin, St Petersburg, Russia. The epidemiological trend of increasing HIV incidence rates due to sexual transmission in Central and Eastern Europe has been documented. The current review analyzed research articles that report on a wide spectrum of vulnerable populations from this world region. Studies of injection drug users, commercial sex workers, men who have sex with men, adolescents and young adults all reported inconsistent condom use.
However, these patterns varied across populations and geographic areas. Populations in former Soviet countriesβmost affected by HIVβalso often appeared to have lower condom use rates.
Intensified, comprehensive, and locally-tailored measures to curb sexual HIV transmission are urgently needed. Social development programs need to incorporate HIV prevention. While central and southern parts of the region were only modestly affected, former Soviet countries have seen a particularly dramatic rise in STD and HIV rates. HIV increases were first found among injection drug users IDUs and were primarily related to their needle sharing practices.
Although still concentrated, HIV prevalence in Ukraine, together with Russia and Estonia, all exceed the WHO threshold for designating a generalized epidemic, and the quick rise in the number of newly-diagnosed sexually-transmitted HIV infections is alarming.
Increases in heterosexual transmission are also partially attributable to overlap between IDU and commercial sex worker CSW populations who may transmit HIV to their clients. Men who have sex with men MSM have been especially affected by HIV in central and south-eastern parts of the region, although prevalence rates vary highly throughout the region. Other populations of particular concern are prisoners, impoverished ethnic minority groups, and labor migrants.
