In Romania, the WHO World Health Report (2006) indicates a life expectancy at birth of 68 years for males; 76 years for females (Table 4). Healthy life expectancy is 61 years for males; 65.2 years for females.⁷⁶

Table 4: Population life expectancy at birth, Central and Eastern Europe (2004)

The adult mortality⁷⁷ rate in 2004 is reported as 232/1000 population for males and 100/1000 for females⁷⁸. In 1998, the standardized death rate for all ages was 1,190 per 100,000, 10% higher than the CEE average. Cardiovascular disease and cancer account for 50% of deaths among people aged 0-64; 85% in the over 65s. In 1999, there were 37,840 deaths from cancer, 168.2 per 100,000. Rates for carcinoma of the cervix uteri are very high. Lung cancer rates have been rising for many years. From the 1960s, Romania’s health status has been in decline. Life expectancy at birth is 5 years lower than in Western Europe; infant mortality is around 3 times higher. By 1998 there were 5,407 recorded cases of AIDS, 89.5% of them children.⁷⁹

In 2006, UNAIDS reports:

‘The epidemics in Eastern Europe and Central Asia continue to grow and are affecting ever-larger parts of societies in this region. 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 2004 were in people younger than 30 years (in Western Europe, the corresponding figure was 33%).’ ⁸⁰

UNAIDS also specifically highlight the increase in HIV infections in Romania:

‘Romania is one of the few countries in Central and Eastern Europe with a large number of people affected by HIV and AIDS. By the end of 2003 overall HIV prevalence was about 44 per 100,000 inhabitants. Given the absence of wide and systematic transversal surveillance, the actual rates could actually be much higher.
It is believed that between 1987 and 1991 thousands of newborn and young children became HIV-infected as a result of unsafe medical procedures. Also, particularly since 1994, there has been a steady increase in HIV incidence among young adults, mainly related to sexual and, to a lesser extent, injecting drug use transmission of the virus.’ ⁸¹

The Romanian national response to HIV and AIDS became more structured in 2000 when the National AIDS Strategy 2000-2003 was launched. Since 2001, the Ministry of Health has declared HIV and AIDS as a top public-health priority and has developed a Plan for Universal Access to Treatment and Care. As a result, in 2004 more than 6000 people living with HIV and AIDS are in active medical surveillance and receiving antiretroviral therapy according to international standards. Since 2001, a public-private partnership facilitated by the UN has achieved price reductions of anti-retrovirals and donations from six pharmaceutical companies. In early 2002, the government established the National Multisectoral AIDS Commission under the authority of the Prime Minister. It includes 16 ministries, seven nongovernmental organizations, private-sector representatives, UN agencies, bilateral and multilateral donors. A person living with HIV holds a vice-presidential chair in the commission.

A new HIV and AIDS Strategy was approved for the period 2004–2007. The major goals are to maintain the same level of registered HIV incidence in 2002 until 2007, and to improve the quality of life of people infected with and affected by HIV. The new strategy has a monitoring and evaluation framework harmonizing all the indicators and the inputs of the different strategy implementation partners, including the Romanian Government, non-governmental organizations, Global Fund, the UN and donors.⁸²