Hepatitis and other drug-related infectious diseases will be the focus of ‘Hepatitis week’, taking place at the EU drugs agency (EMCDDA) in Lisbon from 12–16 June 2017. The initiative will bring together some 100 specialists from: EU Member States, candidate and potential candidate countries to the EU, as well as partner agencies, civil society and professional organisations.
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.
Chlamydia infection, campylobacteriosis, salmonellosis, gonorrhoea and tuberculosis were the most commonly reported notifiable infectious diseases in the EU and EEA in 2014.
Almost 30 000 newly diagnosed HIV infections were reported by the 31 European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA) countries in 2015, according to data published by ECDC and the WHO Regional Office for Europe. This is similar to the observed notification trends in the last decade. One reason for this persistent HIV epidemic: ECDC estimates that currently around 122 000 people living with HIV across the region are unaware of their infection. The estimated time between HIV infection and diagnosis is four years.
This first European Action Plan provides an important driver to aid countries in their fight against viral hepatitis, to which ECDC had the opportunity to contribute directly.
The goal for 2030: a world free of hepatitis. Currently, Europe records around 57 000 newly diagnosed acute and chronic cases of hepatitis B and C each year.