The Russian Federation and the Ukraine are among the Eastern European countries with
the fastest growing number of cases of HIV. According to data from the Joint United Nations Program on
HIV/AIDS, nearly 90% of newly reported HIV diagnoses in Eastern Europe in 2006 were from the Russian
Federation (66%) and the Ukraine (21%). A growing number of women are infected with HIV. The impact
of gender on HIV/AIDS is an important factor in understanding the development and evolution of the
HIV/AIDS epidemic in Eastern Europe.