Evidence brief: Progress towards reaching the Sustainable Development Goal 3.3 targets related to HIV, TB, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections in the European Union and European Economic Area
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Although preventable, viral hepatitis, HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STI) and tuberculosis (TB) remain public health issues in the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA), causing substantial morbidity and nearly 57 000 deaths annually. As of the end of 2023, 820 000 people were living with HIV, 3.2 million with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and 1.8 million with hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the EU/EEA.
Key messages
- Further work is needed in the EU/EEA to accelerate progress and reach the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.3 targets by 2030 to end the epidemics of AIDS and TB, and to combat viral hepatitis. The majority of countries in the EU/EEA are either not on track to reach the targets related to these diseases by 2030 or lack the data to measure progress towards the targets.
- Estimated incidence for HIV and TB has declined, but remains below the reduction targets. Incidence data is lacking for viral hepatitis and STIs, however gonorrhoea, syphilis and acute hepatitis B diagnoses are increasing in many EU/EEA countries. In the EU/EEA, more than 260 000 cases of these infections are reported annually.
- Although progress has been made in the area of prevention, it remains below targets for highly-effective public health interventions such as condom use, pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV, provision of needle and syringe exchange programmes, opioid agonist treatment and hepatitis B vaccination.
- The EU/EEA is on track to meet the testing and treatment targets for HIV and has reached the target for the TB detection rate, however treatment success for TB remains below the target. Progress for hepatitis and STI are less apparent due to limited availability of data.
- To reach the SDG 3.3 targets and reduce morbidity and mortality associated with these infections in the EU/EEA priority actions should be:
- scale-up of prevention interventions
- scale-up of effective integrated testing and treatment services
- improvement of data for action.
