The HIV epidemic in Europe is still growing at an alarming rate, particularly in Eastern Europe, according to a new report.
The number of new HIV diagnoses in the region continued to rise in 2017, but the pace of the increase is slowing, according to the report from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control and the WHO Regional Office for Europe. Still, nearly 160,000 people were newly diagnosed with the disease in the region in 2017. More than 130,000 of those diagnoses were in Europe's eastern region, the most ever reported there.
The rate in the East -- 51.1 new cases diagnosed per 100,000 people -- was "disproportionately higher" than in the West, which had a rate of 6.4 new cases per 100,000 people, the reportfound. Central Europe's rate was 3.2 diagnoses per 100,000 people.
