InterPress News Service (IPS); Wednesday, 29 January 1997
Eduardo Gomez Ortega

During the first nine months of 1996, 17,778 new cases were diagnosed, while 134 transnational AIDS prevention projects received the support of the European Union in the 1994-1995 period.

According to a report adopted by the European Commission (the EU executive body) on the "Europe against AIDS" plan put into action in 1994-95, the incidence of the disease appears to have entered a more contained phase.

However, the general stability is marked by profound differences between the 15 EU members, for the epidemic has not retreated in Spain, Italy and Portugal, where the incidence of AIDS is especially high in association with intravenous drug abuse.

In the 1993-1995 period, the accumulated total of cases in Spain reached 39,170, in Italy 33,701 and in Portugal 3,341 compared with 514 in Ireland, 105 in Luxemborg and 230 in Finland, according to official figures.

"To a certain extent, this is a hopeful sign even if future projections cannot be made and we must limit ourselves to the data available," said Nico Wegter, Commission representative.

The 17,778 new AIDS cases reported to the European Commission were recorded between January and September 1996, which increased the total number of AIDS sufferers in the EU to 167,021 since the illness first struck.

Throughout the EU, the incidence of AIDS -- or the new cases detected each year per million inhabitants -- does not seem be an increasing tendency, said Wegter.

"In my opinion, we can talk of a stabilization in relative terms," added Andre Stroobart, a specialist from the Belgian Epidemiological Institute.

"In the declared AIDS cases, the tendency would indicate that this is so, but we do not yet know if in reality this is true or if it is due to new drugs which act on the HIV infected cells," he added.

He explained that while in the majority of countries there are official registers for the diagnosed AIDS cases, the same is not true of HIV positive people, "which makes it very difficult to compare one country with another."

He added that in a recent conference on epidemiology in Paris, the French doctors had also said the problem of HIV positive people not submitting themselves to laboratory tests "impeded comparative statistics" from being drawn up.

And while the epidemic was originally found amongst homosexual or bisexual men, since 1990, intravenous drug abusers have taken the lead in the number of cases diagnosed each year in Europe.

According to the European Commission report, in 1995, 43 percent of the new cases diagnosed were linked to injecting drugs, ile 28 percent were homosexual or bisexual men and 19 percent from heterosexual contact.

European Commission representative, Barbara Nolan, said the change in transmission patterns had been accompanied by an increase in the number of cases among women.

While only 12 percent of cases were women in 1986, the figure had risen to 20 by 1995. The majority of the women diagnosed with AIDS in 1995 (47 percent) were drug addicts who injected.

At the same time, some 43 percent of the women were infected through heterosexual relations and 32 percent through contact with intravenous drug users.

Padraig Flynn, the European commissioner responsible for public health, said AIDS sufferers must be supported, condemning any form of discrimination against declared AIDS sufferers or healthy HIV carriers.

According to Flynn, "the progress made in treatment offers new hope for those infected, even if it is too early to speak of a cure."

He added that until an effective vaccine is developed "the only true defense against this terrible disease is prevention via information and education, and also by promoting sexual responsibility and reducing the risks caused by drug addicts."

Nolan explained that the concept of sexual responsibility especially related to the use of condoms for "safe sex," or abstinence "which can sound a little Jesuit but is justified given the characteristics of AIDS."

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