Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct.10 / Trend, S.Dadashova /
The number of new HIV cases is on the rise in Central Asia, particularly in the CIS countries, Vice President of the World Bank's Human Development Network, Tamar Manuelyan Atinc said in her statement at the International Forum on MDG6 (Millennium Development Goals) in Moscow on Monday.
"While the number of new cases has fallen significantly in most regions of the world over the last decade, it is on the rise in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, particularly in the CIS countries," she said.
According to Atinc, in 2010 there were seven countries in the world where the number of HIV cases increased by 25 percent or more and five of those countries were in this region.
"The continuing growth of new cases of HIV infection and the severity of the region's TB epidemic, particularly multi-drug resistant TB cases, give us great cause for concern," she stressed.
The forum is organized with support from the Russian Sherpa for G8, Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, The World Bank, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and UNAIDS.
The Forum is an initiative to mobilize all participants in a review of the situation in Eastern Europe and Central Asia regarding MDG6, to identify the main obstacles to progress towards meeting the development goal and make recommendations on how to reach the goal by 2015, based on sharing of experience and strengthened international cooperation.
The Forum brought together prominent international experts, policy makers and actors from Eastern and Western Europe, Central Asia and non-European G8 countries.