Abstract

Estonia occupies a leading position regarding the incidence of HIV in European Union. The first HIV case in Estonia was reported in 1988. The number of new diagnoses reported each year increased more than one hundred times between 1999 (12 cases) and 2001 (1474 cases). Although actual preventive activity started in the late 1980, and the warning signs of a possible epidemic were obvious, Estonia was not able to avoid the rapid transmission of HIV among injecting drug users. By the end of 2004, a total of 4442 HIV cases had been registered. In October 2003, Estonia was granted 10 million US dollars by the international organisation The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for four years to scale up HIV prevention in the country. The coordination of HIV prevention in Estonia was reorganised and a monitoring and evaluation system for all activities was introduced. The use of the resources of the Global Fund has allowed to increase significantly the servicing of persons at risk through evidence-based prevention activities, as well as to cover the increasing expenses of highly active anti-retroviral therapy. Nevertheless, more efforts are needed to provide early effective treatment and care to all persons suffering from HIV and AIDS and to prevent further transmission of HIV in Estonia.