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www.fdanews.com/articles/75770-estonia-to-boost-hiv-aids-funding

ESTONIA TO BOOST HIV/AIDS FUNDING

August 26, 2005

Estonia's Ministry of Social Affairs has announced that it will seek EEK50mn (US$3.93mn) in additional funding in 2006 to combat HIV/AIDS in the country. This is almost double the EEK26mn (US$2.05mn) that has been allocated by the state this year to address the problem.

Over the previous few years HIV/AIDS has begun to spread rapidly in Estonia, crossing over from intravenous drug users to other groups. By 2003, it was estimated that around 7,800 Estonians had the disease. Estonia only has a small local pharmaceutical manufacturing industry and so the government remains heavily reliant upon imported antiretroviral drugs (ARVs).

Estonia, Russia and the Ukraine have the fastest growing AIDS/HIV rates in the world. Much of the problem can originally be traced to supplies of heroin from Afghanistan flooding the Baltics and Central Europe. There are currently 1.4mn people infected with HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.