Final Draft MEETING REPORT 2nd meeting on detecting and responding to outbreaks of HIV among people who inject drugs

Background and context

A joint risk assessment performed by EMCDDA and ECDC in November 2011 documented an increase in newly detected HIV cases among people who inject drugs (PWIDs) in Greece and Romania. Further analysis of HIV surveillance, prevalence and response data indicated that several additional countries reported increased HIV incidence or prevalence and/or increased hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection prevalence among PWIDs. Besides in Greece and Romania, this was the case in Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Italy, Luxembourg and Lithuania. In a total of four countries (Austria, Greece, Hungary and Romania) recent changes in injecting patterns were reported, with more frequent injecting or increased stimulant injecting. In addition to Greece and Romania, coverage of effective prevention services, such as needle and syringe programmes and/or opioid substitution treatment were reported as being low in Croatia, Cyprus, Hungary, Latvia, Poland and Slovakia.

Observed increases in HIV transmission among people who inject drugs in Europe are of concern, because HIV transmission can spread very rapidly among injecting populations. Since effective measures to prevent and control infectious diseases among PWIDs exist, important prevention opportunities may be missed.