The WHO European Region is the only Region worldwide where the number of new HIV infections is rising. With more than 160 000 people newly diagnosed with HIV across the Region, including more than 29 000 new cases from the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA), this trend continued in 2016.
An estimated 122 000 people living with HIV across Europe are not aware of their HIV infection and a large number out of the estimated 9 million Europeans that are affected by chronic hepatitis B or C have not yet been tested or diagnosed. ECDC welcomes the efforts of European HIV-Hepatitis Testing Week which starts today.
The continuum of HIV care is a framework that enables countries to monitor the effectiveness of their HIV response - from diagnosis towards viral suppression (which means that the virus is no longer detectable in the blood). This report provides a snapshot of the status of the continuum of care for the whole region as well as each of the 48 countries reporting at least some continuum data.
In a two-day conference organised in collaboration between the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the European Union Conference and ECDC , HIV experts from across the European Union discussed how to reverse the HIV epidemic and how to prepare Europe to achieve the set target of ending AIDS by 2030.
Men who have sex with men (MSM) are the only key population in the countries of the European Union and European Economic Area that has not seen a decline in new HIV infections during the last decade.
From 22 to 29 November 2013, the first European HIV testing week will take place with more than 400 organisations across Europe hosting activities to increase awareness of the benefits of HIV testing.
With more than 32 000 cases, gonorrhoea was the second most commonly reported sexually transmitted infection (STI) in Europe in 2010. As data from the ECDC report Gonococcal antimicrobial susceptibility surveillance in Europe 2010 illustrates, gonococci have become more resistant to common agents for treatment and show reduced susceptibility to newer antibiotics. “This indicates the risk that gonorrhoea may become an untreatable disease in the near future”, stresses ECDC Director Marc Sprenger.