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Joan Stephenson, PhD

JAMA. 2002;287:180.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

The number of HIV infections is rising faster in Eastern Europe than anywhere else in the world, warns the annual report on the HIV/AIDS epidemic issued by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

The document (available online at http://www.unaids.org/) said that reported figures—largely underestimates of the actual numbers—indicated that there were more than 75 000 new infections in Russia by early November 2001, a 15-fold increase in 3 years. In Estonia, reported HIV cases are 10 times higher than they were 2 years ago. And in Ukraine, 1% of the adult population is infected with HIV, the highest rate in the region.

The report also notes that infections continue to climb in sub-Saharan Africa, the region hardest hit by the disease, and in Asia, where localized epidemics threaten to erupt into major, generalized epidemics. HIV/AIDS, now the fourth largest cause of death worldwide, claimed 3 . . . [Full Text of this Article]