The number of people diagnosed with HIV has reached a new high in Europe, underscoring the need for more and faster action, two European health agencies say in a report released ahead of World Aids Day, December 1.
More than 142,000 new cases of HIV were reported in Europe in 2014.
The majority of them, more than 85,000, in Russia.
The number was the "highest ever" since reporting began in the 1980s, WHO Regional Director for Europe, Zsuzsanna Jakab, said as the report was released on Thursday.
Roughly 5700 more cases were reported in 2014 than in 2013, according to the European Centre for Disease
Prevention and Control in Stockholm and the European office of the World Health Organization, which is based in Copenhagen.
The main increase was in the eastern regions of Europe, they said.
"We call on European countries to take bold action and curb the HIV epidemic once and for all," Jakab added.
In the 28-member European Union and the non-EU countries of Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein - known as EU/EEA - there were over 29,900 new cases.
A concern highlighted in the report was the increase in HIV infections among homosexual men.
The data suggested that in the EU/EEA bloc, 42 per cent of newly diagnosed HIV cases were among men who have sex with men in 2014. In 2005 it was 30 per cent.
In eastern Europe, the report said intravenous drug users remained a high-risk group, but the increase in cases in that region was mainly attributed to heterosexual contacts.
Other findings were that two in three new HIV infections were among native-born Europeans, while foreign-born individuals, including migrants, accounted for one third of new cases.
