HIV Soars Among Greece’s Drug Users Amid Austerity
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HIV infections among drug users in Greece jumped more than 20-fold in fewer than two years, fueled by a lack of needle exchange and methadone programs, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
The ECDC, the European Union agency that monitors infectious disease, reported 314 cases of the AIDS-causing virus among injecting drug users in the first eight months of this year. That compares with 208 for all of 2011 and no more than 15 cases a year from 2001 to 2010, the ECDC said in today’s report.