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Health care experts describe high HIV incidence in Latvia as "dramatic"

Xinhua, December 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

The number of new HIV infections recorded per 100,000 residents of Latvia last year was three times higher than in Europe on average, Anna Kivite, a docent at Riga Stradins University (RSU), told members of the Latvian parliament social and labor affairs committee this week.

Inga Januskevica, the head of the HIV/AIDS outpatient department of the Latvian Infectology Center (LIC), who also took part in the parliament committee meeting, described the situation as "dramatic".

Januskevica noted that in Latvia the infection has been spreading mainly among heterosexual people.

She called the assumption that HIV/AIDS is transmitted mostly among homosexuals and drug addicts a myth, because statistics show that the heterosexual population is the most affected group.

In 2014, Latvia had the second highest HIV incidence in Europe, with 17.3 cases per 100,000 residents recorded during the year.

The highest HIV rate was recorded in Latvia's neighbor Estonia with 22.1 new HIV patients registered per 100,000 residents, while the average figure in Europe was 5.9 new HIV patients per 100,000 residents.

In Januskevica's words, Latvia is also the European leader by the number of AIDS cases and that several experts suspect that the actual number of HIV patients might be even two to three times higher than the official figure.

The highest concentration of HIV-infected people is in the capital city Riga where there is a HIV-positive person per 100,000 residents, as well as in the seaside resort town of Jurmala where every 300th resident carries the virus.

HIV is currently transmitted mostly through sexual contacts and less through drug injections.

According to this year's statistics, 46 percent of HIV-positive people in Latvia had caught the virus by injecting narcotics and 54 percent had got infected through sexual contacts. The vast majority of the HIV-positive patients in Latvia are heterosexual people, aged 21-40, Januskevica told lawmakers.

The health care expert blamed the situation on lack of information as people rarely test themselves for HIV/AIDS and often live with the incurable disease for years without even suspecting they have it.

On Dec. 8, the Latvian government approved the Health Ministry's plan to start treating HIV/AIDS patients at an earlier stage of the infection in line with the World Health Organization's recommendations, which is expected to improve survival prospects for the HIV-positive patients and help save the Latvian health care budget. Endit