The Estonian consortium of the communities held a strategic planning

As part of  XI summer school of the Estonian Network of PLHIV,  the participants of the Estonian consortium of the communities (Estonian Network of PLHIV, LUNEST, VEKLGBT) held a strategic planning.
The event was held within implementation of the international project “Partnership for equitable access to HIV care continuum in the EECA region”, implemented by the regional program of the East Europe and Central Asia Union of People Living with HIV in partnership with the Eurasian harm reduction network under the support from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
The representative from Russian Federation, Head of the NGO Humanitarian project, Denis Kamaldinov facilitated the meeting. He held special sessions to develop a strategic plan of the Estonian Consortium.
Estonia is considered as one of the examples of transition programs to the state funding. However, state support for the activities aimed at the key groups is not sufficient. Particularly, there is no system to work with MSM. The estimated level of HIV treatment coverage of all PLHIV is one of the lowest in Europe, alongside the high level of late staging of the diagnosis –  63% among newly registered cases. The authorities are undertaking measures to expand the coverage, for example, in 2017 the ceilings of allowable funding for procurement of antiretroviral drugs were canceled. The National HIV Program is integrated into a single “National plan for health development 2020”. Unfortunately, there is no effective platform for the discussions of HIV progress, challenges and ways to overcome them with the involvement of various stakeholders and sectors in the country. The dialog between the civil society representatives and key communities with state agencies are unsystematic.
Since 2000 in Estonia spreads out one of most severe concentrations of HIV epidemics in Europe among injecting drug users (IDUs). The prevalence of HIV among IDUs in Estonia is 50-60%. The estimated quantity of people living with HIV (PLHIV), calculated by WHO in 2013, was 13 500 (each 100th citizen of Estonia).
Estonia is in third place with the level of new HIV cases registration in Europe, although it decreased for the last 10 years. The level of HIV prevalence among IDUs is very high on the world scale (48.3%) The level of HIV prevalence among other risk groups as follows: 15.8% among prisoners, 6.2% among sex workers, 3% of men who have sex with men. Unfortunately, this data is outdated, the last national report on progress in the implementation of Declaration of Commitment (2016) includes 10-years old data. Currently, the heterosexual way of virus transfer prevails. The HIV/TB co-infection cases remain high: at the level of 12%, and the country is among 27 countries of the world with the high MDR-TB morbidity. Following the “90-90-90” Strategy, in Estonia, 12150 people should know about their positive status; 10935 people should receive ART; and among less than 9248 of them, the viral load should be undetectable.