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The spread of HIV is "as big of a threat as terrorism," and
the European Union
"has failed" to confront the HIV/AIDS epidemic even as the group
expands into Eastern Europe, where the epidemic is growing fastest, UNAIDS Executive
Director Peter Piot said on Monday in Oslo, Norway, Reuters
reports. Speaking at a seminar organized by the Red Cross, Piot
compared HIV/AIDS to terrorism, saying that the disease can cause
poverty, spark political unrest, weaken defense forces in heavily
affected countries and lead to cross-border conflicts, according to Reuters.
"Millions of orphans, children with no future -- it's enough that there
is a warlord who puts a Kalashnikov [rifle] in their hands," he said.
Although HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death in Africa -- where at
least 70% of the world's 40 million HIV-positive people live -- the
epidemic is growing the fastest in Eastern Europe, Piot said, according
to Reuters. "The E.U. has failed in dealing with AIDS at
its borders, at its doorsteps, including in some of the new enlargement
countries," Piot said. On May 1, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta and Cyprus will
formally join the European Union, increasing its population from 380
million to 450 million, Reuters reports. "Some of the
enlargement countries have done very well, like Poland, but the Baltic
states have big problems," Piot added. He said that responsibility for
the fight against HIV/AIDS was not clearly defined within the European
Union, and he called on the body to designate a commission to manage
the epidemic, according to Reuters (Sethov, Reuters,
4/19).
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