What are the Countries With The Highest HIV Rates in Europe? It is a common misconception that HIV virus in spread widely only in the African continent. It is not so. Some European countries have a high rate of HIV as well. Initially, when HIV and AIDS were discovered, those affected were treated like lepers. The society stayed away from them and avoided any sort of contact with them. One reason for this was that it was thought HIV was associated with the gay community and it was not socially acceptable to be in the company of gay people at that period of time. Since not much was known about this disease at that time, it was also thought that the infection could spread through contact. So, people took the safe approach and stayed away from those suffering from the HIV virus. Later, when it became clear that the disease could not be transmitted by physical contact, the society grew to accept it.
There was no cure or medical help for AIDS and if you were infected, it meant certain death. Also, people considered HIV and AIDS to be the same and were not aware of the differences between them. HIV is a virus that might result in AIDS, and AIDS is the actual disease. The reason many countries have low rates which African countries still have the highest rates is due to lack of funds they are unable to obtain resources to be able to eradicate this. Though Europe has seen the HIV rates drop by a great margin, there are still countries where many suffer from HIV and AIDS.
Estonia, Spain, and the United Kingdom are part of this list. Estonia has 1.3% of the adult population with HIV/AIDS. It tops the list of the countries with the highest rate of HIV infection. Spain has 0.42% of the adult population living with HIV/AIDS. Spain has acknowledged its problem and is now trying ways to being it under control. Spain is using the case of the Berlin patient who is the only known living person who has recovered from AIDS. The country is trying to come up with a procedure that would be used to treat those affected with HIV in the next three years. UK has about 0.33% of the adult population infected with HIV of which 13% are not even aware of their health condition. About two-fifths of those affected started treatment quite late which could lead to severe consequences. It is said that a person who seeks treatment right on time is 9 times less likely to succumb to the virus than those who started out late. This shows that awareness of treatment is low in the UK. You can check out the complete list of the Countries With The Highest HIV Rates in Europe.
