Interia: influx of refugees from Ukraine could provoke an increase in HIV cases in Poland
The current year in Poland has turned out to be a record for new HIV infections, the country’s Ministry of Health believes that due to “changes in social behavior” of citizens and the influx of refugees from Ukraine, the number of infections may increase, reports Interia.
“The latest data (in particular, epidemiological reports) presented by the National Institute of Public Health, the state research institute, leave no doubt that this year is a record year for registered new cases of HIV infections,” the article says.
Thus, from the beginning of the year to the end of September, 1,678 HIV infections were detected in the country, with the number of newly detected cases so far only twice exceeding the 1,500 mark – in 2019 and in 2017.
One of the reasons for the growth of diseases the local Ministry of Health calls the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to limitations in the issue of diagnosis and prevention. At the same time, the agency admits that the number of infections may increase in the near future due to “changes in social behavior in the sexual sphere” among citizens and the influx of refugees from Ukraine.
According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, more than seven million refugees from Ukraine arrived in European countries from February 24 to August 30.
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