The purpose of this paper is to review the current status of the AIDS epidemics in Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania; to evaluate the approaches and strategies currently being used in each country; and to make recommendations both for government strategies and for the bank's current and potential future involvement in relation to these strategies. The paper is divided into three sections. The first provides an overview of recent regional perspectives; the second presents a situation analysis and evaluation for each country including current strategies and implementation arrangements; and the third discusses potential actions by the World Bank. The study does not aim to duplicate any research, data collection or analyses already completed, but rather to inventory information and to assess what pieces may be missing from current and future planning activities. Future directions as to where the World Bank may provide added value in the control of the nascent epidemics of HIV/AIDS in these countries are discussed.