Most countries of Europe have been both very active and successful in fighting the HIV and AIDS epidemic since the early 1980s, when AIDS was first established as a disease and the HIV virus was identified as causing AIDS. Consequently, numbers of new infections were going down for years, while treatment became more effective and more widely available. But recent trends are worrying. Firstly, the HIV virus is detected late in around half of all new cases. When the virus is detected after being present for a long time, the prognosis is poor. People suffering from late-stage HIV do not benefit as much from improvements in treatment as those who are diagnosed early. Although accessibility and quality of treatment is comparably good in Europe, many people suffer and die due to late diagnosis. Secondly, the prevalence of HIV cases is increasing. This might sound like good news if it were suspected it could be attributed to a decrease in mortality alone but this is not the case. Another reason for the increased prevalence is the steep climb in incidence rates – the number of new infections detected rose by 80 % from 2004 to 2013 (WHO, 2014).4

The number of new diagnoses varies greatly between the different countries in Europe. In Eastern regions the rate is 0.4‰, in the West it is 0.06 ‰ and in Central Europe 0.02‰. Some of these numbers are increasing rapidly. Currently Estonia has the highest rate of HIV, followed by Ukraine, Russia, Latvia and Portugal. The official numbers should be interpreted with care, however. Some infections