Estimated at 1.6 percent, Ukraine‘s adult HIV prevalence is the highest of any country in Europe or Central Asia. Though injecting drug use remains the driver of HIV transmission, the Ukrainian AIDS Center reports that more and more new cases of HIV are attributed to heterosexual transmission (over 41 percent of new cases in 2008), followed by mother-to-child transmission (19.2 percent in 2008). This epidemiological shift has given women a more prominent place in the HIV epidemic: according to UNDP, women now account for 48 percent of all HIV cases among adults in Ukraine. Regional analysis suggests that this increase is still largely attributable, either directly or indirectly, to injecting drug use. UNAIDS estimates that 35 percent of women living with HIV in Eastern Europe and Central Asia acquired the virus through injecting drug use, and a further 50 percent were infected through unsafe sex with partners who inject drugs. Women who use drugs are an exceptionally high risk group. For physiological and social reasons, women tend to be more vulnerable to HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and drug dependence.
Last on the needle: Research has found that women often inject last in a group and are more likely to need help injecting, two important risk factors for HIV. Women drug users are much more likely than men to have sex partners who are also drug users and to inject drugs in the context of a sexual relationship.
