European colonisation of Southeast Asia tightening Turkish control and eventual shut down of the Eastern Mediterranean gateways into Asia first prompted Portuguese, and later Spanish and Dutch sea voyagers to ship around Africa in search of new trading routes and business opportunities. Niccolò de' Conti arrived in Southeast Asia as the earliest documented European in the early 15th century. By 1498 Vasco da Gama, who had sailed round the Cape of Good Hope, established the first direct sea route from Europe to India. Central among the various plannings was to establish direct and permanent trade of the highly priced spices, that were native to Southeast
HIV/AIDS in Europe people living with HIV in areas such as Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, HIV/AIDS in Western and Central Europe is still considered a major public health issue. Regarding the social effects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, there has been since the 1980s a "profound re-medicalization of sexuality". As part of the global AIDS pandemic, there is also growing concern about a rapidly growing epidemic in Eastern Europe, particularly in Estonia and Russia, and Central Asia. Albania remains to have a low number of HIV death-related cases. Between 1992 and until the end of 2011, Albania reported a total of 487 HIV