'Health fears' over EU expansion

The European Union is set to expand eastwards

Doctors have warned the expansion of the European Union could adversely affect health across Europe.

Ten countries, mainly from eastern Europe, will join the EU in May.

Experts from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine warn many have faced high levels of communicable diseases such as HIV and tuberculosis.

Writing in The Lancet, the researchers say all EU members must work together to contain the spread of such infectious diseases.

Enlargement of the EU will have important consequences for the surveillance and control of communicable diseases within all of Europe Dr Richard Coker, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Cyprus, and Malta will join the EU next month.

The researchers warn the Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, which all have health systems "grounded in the Soviet tradition", which are unable to cope with the rise of diseases including HIV and drug-resistant TB.

Global approach

Dr Richard Coker, who led the research team, wrote: "Enlargement of the EU will have important consequences for the surveillance and control of communicable diseases within all of Europe, because of the greater volume of travel not only within the expanded union but also across its new frontiers."

The experts called for concerted action from member states, and the EU itself, to tackle the issue.

Writing in The Lancet, David Durrheim and Rick Speare from James Cook University, Townsville, Australia, say a global response is required to strengthen health systems and to prevent the spread of communicable diseases across nations.

They added: "Investments in improving communicable disease surveillance and response capacity are certainly required beyond the leading eastern edge of the expanded EU, and must extend to all developing countries with poor sub-national capacity".