HIV remains a major public health issue in Europe, with more than 500 000 people living with HIV infection in the EU countries in 2014 and continued transmission increasing this number. In 2014, nearly 30 000 people were newly-diagnosed with HIV infection in EU countries. Estonia had the highest rate of new cases (22.1 per 100 000 population), followed by Latvia and Luxembourg. Since 2000, the main transmission route in Estonia has been the sharing of contaminated needles among drug users, along with increases in sexual transmission (ECDC and WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2015). The lowest rates were in the Slovak Republic, Croatia, the Czech Republic and Slovenia. In total across EU countries, about six new cases of HIV infection were diagnosed per 100 000 population in 2014 (). More than three-quarters of these cases were among men. The predominant mode of transmission of HIV was through men having sex with men (42%), followed by heterosexual contact (33%). As already noted for Estonia, drug use through injections is also a frequent mode of transmission in some countries.