Brussels, 06/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - A meeting of national coordinators in the fight against HIV/AIDS from the 25 Member States of the EU and Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Bulgaria and Romania, organised by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) on 2 and 3 October, demonstrated that one of the main challenges in Europe today is the fight against the hidden epidemic. It is estimated that in the European Union one in three people infected with HIV is unaware of their condition and that this figure is even higher in the EU's neighbouring countries. Experts consider that these people pose a double health problem because they are more likely to transmit the virus and they are not benefiting from a medical follow-up or treatment. The meeting confirmed that new prevention efforts aimed at people having at-risk sexual relations and migrants, are crucial. The development of indicators that allow for the success of the prevention campaign to be measured, is necessary. The level of the epidemic in Baltic countries remains worrying. Results of this meeting will be analysed by the participants: ECDC, WHO and UNAIDS in view of a major conference on HIV prevention under the German presidency on 12-13 March 2007 in Bremen.
In 2005, 25,037 newly diagnosed cases of HIV infection were reported from 27 of the EU and EFTA countries. Two countries reported rates of more than 200 new HIV diagnoses per million of the population: Estonia (467) and Portugal (251). Out of the 22 countries with consistent reporting of HIV, there has been nearly a doubling in the number of cases between 1998 (9264) and 2005 (17,043). (oj)