HIV/AIDS is spreading rapidly

Eastern Europe and Central Asia
Until the mid-1990s, most of the countries of Eastern Europe appeared to have been spared the
worst of the HIV epidemic. But between 1995 and 1998, the former socialist economies of
Eastern Europe and Central Asia saw infections increase around six-fold. Most of these
epidemics are driven by IDU. In Ukraine for example, the number of diagnosed HIV infections
jumped from virtually zero before 1995 to around 20,000 a year from 1996 onwards, about 80%
of them in IDUs.
HIV/AIDS is spreading rapidly through the countries of this region, which continues to
experience the fastest-growing epidemic in the world. Following the rapid increased in Ukraine
and Belarus in 1995, the epidemic then started to take off in other countries of the region—
Moldova in 1996 and the Russian Federation in 1998, followed by Latvia and then Kazakhstan
Latin America and the Caribbean
Extensive spread of HIV probably began in the early 1980s, initially predominately among MSM
and IDU residing in large cities. The spread of HIV/AIDS has been slower in Latin America and
the Caribbean than in other developing regions of the world, but sentinel surveillance data are
rare and information on HIV prevalence is difficult to find. What can be determined to date is
that the HIV epidemic varies from country to country.
Many of the epidemics can be described as being in the low level and concentrated stage. In
these countries, the HIV epidemics are found mostly among MSM and IDU. However, 12
countries in this region have an estimated HIV prevalence of 1% or more among pregnant
women. In several of the countries forming the Caribbean Basin, adult HIV prevalence rates are
surpassed only by the rates experienced in sub-Saharan Africa, making this the second most
affected region in the world.