HIV Related to Injection Drug Use in the EU

"Data on reported newly diagnosed cases related to injecting drug use for 2010 suggest that, overall, infection rates are still falling in the European Union, following a peak in 2001–02. Of the five countries reporting the highest rates of newly diagnosed infections among injecting drug users between 2005 and 2010, Spain and Portugal continued their downward trend, while, among the others, only Latvia reported a small increase (Figure 17) (108).
"These data are positive, but they must be viewed in the knowledge that potential for new HIV outbreaks among injectors continues to exist in some countries. Taking a two-year perspective (between 2008 and 2010), increases were observed in Estonia, from 26.8 cases per million to 46.3 per million, and in Lithuania, from 12.5 cases per million to 31.8 per million. Bulgaria, a country with, historically, a very low rate of infection, also saw a peak of 9.7 per million in 2009, before falling back to 7.4 per million in 2010."