A/HRC/25/50/Add.1 and health-care facilities, the reduction in the number of hospital beds and an increasing number of people losing public health insurance (mainly due to long-term unemployment)63 has undermined the availability of and access to quality health care, particularly for the poorest. 61. Since 2010, Greece has reduced health-care spending significantly, to levels below the average in the European Union.64 Public health expenditure fell from 7.1 per cent of GDP in 2010 to 5.8 per cent in 2012, and was projected to drop to 5.3 per cent in 2013, well below the 6.3 per cent average for European Union member States. Overall, the health budget has been cut by about 40 per cent. 62. The austerity policies are also creating ancillary problems with serious health implications; for example, cuts to public health spending have meant that diseases thought to have long been eradicated in the country, such as malaria, have resurfaced owing to the discontinuation of anti-mosquito spraying programmes.65 63. A 52 per cent increase in HIV infections was reported from 2010 to 2011.66 Reports indicate that, although initially blamed on sex workers and irregular migrants, the outbreak was mainly due to unsafe injecting practices among drug addicts, especially desperate young Greeks facing unemployment who had turned to drugs.67 64. The Independent Expert is concerned that, in response to the above situation, the authorities issued a directive (Health Regulation No. GY/39A) in April 2012, which allowed the Health Department to forcibly test anyone for certain infectious diseases, including influenza, tuberculosis, polio, hepatitis and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. The Independent Expert is also concerned that Regulation No. GY/39A was reinstated on 26 June 2013 only a few months after it was repealed.68 65. It should be noted that the detention of persons for the purposes of forcibly testing them for HIV violates the right to security of the person (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 9), as well as the International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights.69 Furthermore, the publication of sensitive personal and medical data, such 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 introduced for all persons insured with EOPYY, in tandem with a 25 per cent co-payment for a range of prosthetic devices, orthopaedic materials and respiratory devices. Law 4093/2012 introduced a €25 patient admission fee at public hospitals and a fee of €1 for each prescription issued by the national health-care system as of 1 January 2014. At the beginning of the crisis, it was estimated that 85 per cent of the population had public health insurance. An increasing number of people have, however, lost insurance cover owing to long-term unemployment. Within the first two years of austerity, the total expenditure of the Ministry of Health fell by €1.8 billion (a reduction of 23.7 per cent between 2009 and 2011). See Elias Kondilis et al., “Economic Crisis, Restrictive Policies, and the Population’s Health and Health Care: The Greek Case”, American Journal of Public Health, vol. 103, No. 6 (2013), p. 973. See S. Bonovas and G. Nikolopoulos, “High-burden epidemics in Greece in the era of economic crisis. Early signs of a public health tragedy”, Journal of Preventive Medical Hygiene, vol. 53 (2012), pp. 169-171. See also David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu, The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills (New York, Basic Books, 2013), pp. 86-88; and Kondilis et al., p. 976. Kondilis et al., p. 976. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control/World Health Organization, Mission Report, Joint technical mission: HIV in Greece, 28-29 May 2012 (Stockholm, January 2013) (available from http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications/publications/hiv-joint-technical%20mission-hiv-in-greece.pdf), p. 1. See also David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu, The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills (New York, Basic Books, 2013) p. 23. See “HIV testing in Greece: repeating past mistakes”, Lancet, vol. 382 (2013), p. 102; and Human Rights Watch, “Greece: Repeal Abusive Health Regulation”, 4 July 2013. See comments on guideline 3, para. 20 (b), and guideline 5, 22(j). 17