• Our look at the divide between rich and poor amid the financial crisis in Europe (2 November, p 6) drew on a World Health Organization report that stated in Greece “about half of new HIV infections [are] being self-inflicted to enable people to receive benefits of €700 per month and faster admission on to drug substitution programmes”. On 26 November, the WHO withdrew this line from its report, blaming an editing error. It now states that: “slightly more than half of Greece’s new HIV cases are among those who inject drugs… there is no evidence that deliberate self-infection with HIV goes beyond a few anecdotal cases”.
