The epidemics in Eastern Europe and Central Asia continue to grow and are affecting ever-larger parts of societies in this region.
According to UNAIDS the number of people living with HIV in this region reached an estimated 1.6 million in 2005-an increase of almost twenty-fold in less than ten years.

AIDS claimed almost twice as many lives in 2005, compared with 2003, and killed an estimated 62 000 adults and children. Some 270 000 people were newly infected with HIV in the past year.

The overwhelming majority of people living with HIV in this region are young; 75% of the reported infections between 2000 and 2005 were in people younger than 30 years (in Western Europe, the corresponding figure was 33%).

The patterns of the epidemics are changing in several countries, with sexually transmitted HIV cases comprising a growing share of new diagnoses. In 2004, 30% or more of all new reported HIV infections in the Ukraine were due to unprotected sex. Increasing numbers of women are being affected, many of them acquiring HIV from male partners who became infected when injecting drugs.

The bulk of the people living with HIV in this region are in two countries: the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Ukraine's epidemic continues to grow, with more new HIV diagnoses occurring each year, while the Russian Federation has the biggest AIDS epidemic in all of Europe. Both epidemics have matured to the point where they constitute massive prevention, treatment and care challenges.

Tuberculosis (TB) is epidemic in the region, combining dangerously with HIV/AIDS. HIV-positive people with weakened immune defenses are especially vulnerable. Indeed, HIV drives TB's spread, particularly in prisons and other highly affected areas, by promoting progression to active TB among those who have latent tuberculosis infections.

WHO estimates 11.4 million people worldwide are infected with both M. tuberculosis and HIV (human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS [acquired immunodeficiency disease]). The primary cause of death in those infected with body microbes is from TB, not AIDS. In the United States, health experts estimate about two out of ten people who have TB are also infected with HIV.

One of the first signs that a person is infected with HIV may be that he or she suddenly develops TB. This form of TB often occurs in areas outside the lungs, particularly when the person is in the later stages of AIDS.

Diagnosing TB in people with HIV infection is often difficult. They frequently have disease symptoms similar to those of TB and may not react to the standard TB skin test because their immune system does not work properly. X-rays, sputum tests, and physical exams may also fail to show evidence of M. tuberculosis infection with in people infected with HIV.

According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases USA (NIAID) there are number of studies in progress to better understand how M. tuberculosis infects and causes disease in humans and also how the human immune system responds to it. This research will help to develop new tools to diagnose TB and to find better vaccines and new medicines against TB.
Nation to Nation is in the process of creating national network for healthcare professionals and general public in the Ukraine, to provide timely, reliable and non-partisan information on health issues, prevention and treatment options.

Most prevention programs in the Ukraine are small pilots. Thus, even when the contents of such programs are well conceived and based on reasonable evidence of what works in early-stage epidemics, the scale is too small to have much impact countrywide. The result is that a spread from high-risk core transmitters through bridge populations to the general population would be due not to the failure of such methods of prevention, but primarily a result of inaction and failure to do what works.