59 000 deaths: Europe off track for Sustainable Development Goal targets for HIV, tuberculosis, viral hepatitis, and STIs

The European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA) are not on track to reach many of the indicators of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.3 target aimed at ending the epidemics of HIV, tuberculosis, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). A report published today by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control highlights that millions of Europeans are living with, or experiencing the effects of,  these preventable illnesses. Together, they cause over 59 000 deaths annually in the EU/EEA. While mortality due to HIV and TB has decreased, neither trend is on track to reach the targets. Accounting for 90% of these annual fatalities, deaths from hepatitis B and C persistently remain high and show no signs of a declining trend.  

‘Europe has the tools to end HIV, tuberculosis, viral hepatitis, and other sexually transmitted infections, but they are not reaching everyone who needs them,’ says Bruno Ciancio, Head of Unit, Directly Transmitted and Vaccine-Preventable Diseases. 'Urgent investment is needed in scaling up prevention, testing and treatment. Reaching the 2030 targets means saving thousands of lives.'

For each disease area, targets related to incidence, prevention, testing, treatment and mortality were assessed,  revealing progress as well as challenges across the region.    While many countries have reached the 85% target for the tuberculosis detection rate and have reached or are nearing  the 95% testing and treatment targets for HIV, tuberculosis treatment success sits well under the 90% goal, with only 64%  of patients being successfully treated. For many of the targets, data are either unavailable or insufficient to measure progress. 

The data also indicate that the region is experiencing a dramatic rise in STIs. Surveillance data show that syphilis diagnoses doubled and gonorrhoea rates more than tripled over the last decade. Syphilis cases in newborns (congenital syphilis) also increased by almost 80% between 2023 and 2024. Despite these worrying trends, data gaps for STIs—as well as hepatitis—severely complicate the ability to monitor progress regarding coverage of testing and treatment.

Based on the progress observed to date, ECDC has recommended that EU/EEA countries focus on three priority actions to accelerate progress towards the targets: expanding targeted prevention interventions, scaling up effective testing and treatment services, and improving the availability of high-quality surveillance and monitoring data to better track progress and guide public health action.