UNAIDS official
warns of rising HIV rates in Europe

Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS executive director Peter Piot is warning European governments that they must immediately take steps to fight rising HIV infection rates in a number of European Union nations, Agence France-Presse reports. Speaking Monday in Lisbon, Portugal, Piot said the number of HIV cases has nearly doubled in Western Europe since 1996, with young people at especially high risk. The largest increases in HIV rates were seen in the former Soviet republics of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, which joined the European Union in 2004, Piot said, but he noted that HIV rates are increasing in nearly every Western European country. (Advocate.com)