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Key facts on HIV epidemic and progress in regions and countries in 2010

Based on Progress report 2011: Global HIV/AIDS response

Eastern Europe and Central Asia

The ART coverage rate in Eastern Europe and Central Asia is very low at 23%, despite the region's success in achieving 79% coverage rate for services to prevent mother-to-child transmission.

The coverage of antiretroviral therapy for children increased from 56% in 2009 to 65% in 2010.

The region is faced with the fastest HIV growth in the world. There has been a steep 250% increase in the number of people living with HIV in this region, from an estimated 410 000 in 2001 to 1.5 million in 2010.

An estimated 160 000 people acquired HIV in 2010 – 23% fewer than the 210 000 estimated for 2001, but more than the estimated 130 000 people newly infected annually in 2007 and 2008. There is no sign yet that the epidemic in this region has peaked.

The prevalence of HIV infection among adults in 2009 was 1% in the Russian Federation and 1.1% in Ukraine. Together, these two countries account for almost 90% of the people newly diagnosed with HIV in the region and are home to twice as many HIV-positive people as in all of Western and Central Europe combined.

Overall, women comprised about 35% of adults living with HIV in the region.

The total estimated number of children living with HIV rose five-fold from 3 400 to   17 000 in the same period, and the number of children dying from AIDS-related causes more than doubled from fewer than 500 to almost 1 200.

AIDS-related deaths in adults are increasing as well; an estimated 90 000 deaths occurred in 2010 – 11 times more than the estimated 7 800 in 2001.

The epidemic in this region began spreading rapidly in the late 1990s among people who inject drugs, and later also among their sexual partners. In Ukraine, between 39% and 50% of the estimated 230 000 – 369 000 people who inject drugs are believed to be living with HIV, as are more than one third (37%) of the 1.5 to 2 million people who inject drugs in the Russian Federation.

Up to one third of sex workers in the Russian Federation are believed to inject drugs. The combination of unprotected sex and injecting drug use compounds the risk of increased HIV rates.