Authorities reported the first HIV/AIDS case in Estonia in 1988. Since then, the number of people with HIV/AIDS in Estonia has decreased, but the country is still making progress.      

What Is HIV/AIDS?

HIV/AIDs is a virus that attacks a person’s immune system and weakens it, leading to an increased number and severity of infections. People can get HIV/AIDS by having sex with someone who has it and is not receiving proper medical treatment, or by sharing needles and other drug injection equipment with someone who has HIV/AIDS and is not receiving proper medical treatment.      

Without proper treatment, HIV leads to AIDS. Without treatment, someone with AIDS lives about three years. While there is no cure for HIV, people can get antiretroviral therapy, sometimes called ART. With ART, people with HIV can live long, happy lives.      

HIV/AIDS in Estonia

Most new HIV diagnoses in Estonia are in people over the age of 40. Authorities reported that more than half of the new cases of HIV/AIDS in Estonia in people who originally came from outside the country. As of 2023, most of the people who got HIV in Estonia contracted it from heterosexual sex (sex between a woman and a man).     

The capital city of Tallinn and North-Eastern Estonia report the majority of new cases. These areas also have the highest rate of people injecting drugs in the country.      

Treatment and Prevention of HIV/AIDS in Estonia

In 1987, Estonia started biological surveillance of HIV/AIDS. The government developed and adopted the first National Program for AIDS Prevention in 1992. Since then, the government has made improvements in the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS in Estonia.    

Since 2016, health care institutions provide free HIV testing, and pharmacies sell home HIV tests. Then, since 2017, family doctors in Estonia have had an unlimited budget for HIV testing. This has paid off as the number of people tested has increased since the 2000s.       

Cases of HIV/AIDS have decreased across the country. Particularly among young people. In 2001, there were 560 cases of HIV diagnosed in 15 to 19-year-olds. By 2016, doctors diagnosed only three cases among that age group.

A program of sex education that includes information about HIV/AIDS has been implemented in Estonian schools. The county has also launched multiple media campaigns focused on prompting the use of condoms and HIV testing.       

Poverty and HIV/AIDS can form a vicious cycle. Someone living in poverty is more likely to get HIV than someone who is not. The high cost of treatment can then further increase poverty. By having HIV testing be free, Estonia has addressed this problem.

Looking Ahead

The Estonian government and health organizations need to scale up HIV/AIDS testing and target it more effectively to vulnerable populations, such as sex workers and drug users. There is also a lack of proper preventative equipment, such as condoms and clean needles, within certain prisons in Estonia. However, with continued efforts to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS in Estonia, hopefully, it can become a thing of the past.

– Axtin Bullock 

Axtin is based in Georgetown, MA, USA and focuses on Global Health for The Borgen Project.

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