Risk groups in Estonia Presentation by Indrek Simisker

Overview of HIV/AIDS statistics in Estonia General data In Estonia the first HIV infection case was registered in 1988 and the first AIDS case diagnosed in From 1988 to 1999 the number of new HIV infections varied between 1 (in 1988) and 12 (in 1994). Big increase in infection rate took place in the second half of 2000 and continued in 2001.

Chart 1: Newly diagnosed HIV infections and AIDS cases in Estonia from 1988 to 2002 YearHIV+AIDS

Data by age and sex HIV infections newly diagnosed by age and sex from 1988 to M3249 F M F M F M F M F Total (Data source: Health Protection Inspectorate, Ministry of Social Affairs) Unkn own Total

Data by age and sex HIV infections newly diagnosed by age and sex in 2004 AgeMenWomenTotal 0– – –69--- Unknown 448 Total

Majority of PLWHA are men, but the proportion of women is increasing. From all age groups the proportion of years old PLWHA is the biggest. The amount of 25 years old and older people increases slowly. In 2002 the age group 0-14 forms 1%, % and older than 25 form 28% of HIV cases.

HIV infections newly diagnosed by sex in 2000 and 2002 (Data source: Health Protection Inspectorate, Ministry of Social Affairs)

HIV infections newly diagnosed in selected age groups in 2000 and 2002 (Data source: Health Protection Inspectorate, Ministry of Social Affairs)

Convicts In Estonian prisons the firs case of HIV infection was registered in May According to the data of Health Protection Inspectorate there were 77 new HIV infections in prisons in 2000, which formed 20% of all cases registered during that year. In 2001 the number of new infections in 9 Estonian prisons was 382, which formed 26% of all new cases in Estonia.

There were 243 HIV cases newly diagnosed in prisons in % from all new infections. Like in the case of all new infections in Estonia, also among prisoners the proportion of years old people is the biggest. Compared with all PLWHA there is a bigger amount of 25 years old and older people infected in prisons.

Injecting drug users The epidemic spread of HIV, which started in 2000 in Ida-Viru County, involved mainly IDUs. IDUs formed 90% of all HIV infections newly diagnosed in anonymous testing sites during According to the data from 5 anonymous testing sites the proportion of IDUs among all new HIV cases has started to decrease. When in the first half of 2001 IDUs formed 94% of all cases registered in anonymous testing sites, then during the firs half on 2002 the percentage of IDUs was 73. In 2001 more than 3/4 of the clients of needle exchange programme were years old, 20% were 25 or older.

Pregnant women and newborns There were 49 HIV infected pregnant women in Estonia in 2001, 16 of them gave birth. In 2002 have been registered 72 HIV infected pregnant women in Estonia and 36 of them gave birth. 5 newborns have been infected vertically - 3 of them were born in 2001 and 2 during the year 2002.

Conclusion As one can see the biggest group of PLWHA in Estonia is youth aged between 15 to 25. Maybe it's finally time to stop marginalization by trying to put people in to a different “risk” groups, instead let's speak about people with risky behavior.