TALLINN, Nov 30 (AFP) - Although Estonia is one of the biggest economic successes among the new EU countries, progress in the tiny Baltic state of just 1.4 million people is being undermined by one of the fastest growing rates of HIV/AIDS in Europe.
"By the last week of November, 4,356 people in Estonia have been diagnosed HIV positive," Kristi Ruutel, HIV/AIDS expert at the National Institute for Health Development told AFP.
Events highlighting the growing problem have been organised all over the country this week. In the capital Tallinn, the rock musical 'Rent', focusing on HIV problems, is being performed at the popular "Club Hollywood" nightclub.
The biggest official AIDS-related event is the "Open your eyes" concert on December 1 at the Kaarli church in the capital.
The patron of the concert is Prime Minister Juhan Parts and national political and economic leaders will be among the guests, Ruutel said.
Stressing the gravity of the HIV situation, Estonian Minister of Social Affairs Marko Pomerants last week opposed planned tax cuts, citing the urgent need for extra funding in the fight against AIDS.
Although fewer than 100 people have developed full-blown AIDS according to official figures, the minister estimated that the number, and therefore the need for expensive treatment, could increase tenfold by 2008.
Experts say the real number of infected people could already be as high as 10,000. A UN report earlier this year warned that Estonia, Russia and Ukraine were suffering from some of the fastest growing rates of HIV/AIDS in the world.
Until the turn of the century, Estonia had managed to remain an almost HIV-free oasis.
But in autumn 2000 a rapid increase of HIV cases was registered among drug addicts in Narva, a city in the northeast on the border with Russia and home to a large ethnic Russian population.
Soon the epidemic spread to neighbouring regions and the area around the capital.
"Out of 657 new HIV cases registered this year, 39 percent have been registered in the capital Tallinn area and 57 percent in the North-Eastern county East-Virumaa," Ruutel told AFP.
In Estonia, the spread of HIV has been strongly related to intravenous drug addicts. According to a report published this autumn there are more than 10,000 such addicts in the country.
According to Estonia's most respected HIV prevention expert, Nelli Kalikov, ethnic Russians made up almost 98 percent of the addicts in 1997-1998, but now Estonians account for 15 to 20 percent of all drug addicts injecting heroin.
Ahead of Wednesday's international AIDS-day, Estonian NGO Convictus launched a book with stories told by 11 HIV positive people. The book is published in three languages -- Estonian, Russian and English -- and tells how the victims cope in their daily lives.
"If my story helps to save even one life, I am happy," said 28-year old Svetlana, whose story is told in the book. Both Svetlana and her husband Aleksandr were drug addicts when they were infected.
"There has been lot of HIV prevention work in Estonia in recent years, but the work should be more effective and reach a bigger audience," Jarno Habicht, head of the WHO Country Office in Estonia, told AFP.
"The rapid spread of HIV is not any more registered just among the injecting drug users, but it spreads quickly also through heterosexual relationships."
"Estonia needs to improve the coordination of its HIV prevention work and should have a common strategy with a strict action plan. WHO is currently helping the government to prepare all that," Habicht added.
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