Europe will miss its 2015 targets for curbing the spread of HIV, says the WHO, with an 80% increase in HIV transmission in 2013 compared with a decade earlier. “Europe has not managed to reach the 2015 Millennium Development Goal target to halt and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, and time is running out. While we are facing emerging health threats, this reminds us that we cannot afford to drop our guard on HIV/AIDS,” says Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe.

“Why we have not seen any significant progress in reducing HIV infections during the last decade? Looking at our data, we clearly see that across Europe the populations most at risk of HIV infection are not reached effectively enough, particularly men who have sex with men,” explains ECDC Director Marc Sprenger. In the EU/EEA, sex between men is still the predominant mode of HIV transmission, which accounted for 42% of newly diagnosed HIV infections in 2013. Read More