Link to care and partner notification will be integral to the successful introduction of this new approach. HIV in Europe plans to support the introduction of indicator condition-guided testing for all relevant conditions as an over-arching strategy to improve the detection of HIV infection and to

further refine the list of indicator conditions through the second selleck phase of the HIDES study (http://www.hiveurope.eu). Many presentations during the conference, as evidenced in this supplement, addressed how countries also need to continue to address the stigmatization of people living with HIV and individuals from at-risk groups, particularly in the East. Studies by the People Living with HIV Stigma Index (http://www.hiveurope.eu) continue to reveal an alarming degree of stigma and discrimination among people living with HIV and risk groups in many countries. The HIV in Europe initiative will continue to support initiatives aimed at increasing the knowledge of the effect that stigmatization and discrimination have on the uptake of HIV testing and treatment, particularly in the most affected groups and regions. Addressing stigma and discrimination is essential to effectively respond to late presentation for HIV treatment. ECDC reports that still more than ubiquitin-Proteasome pathway half of people living

with HIV in the European region are classified as late presenters upon diagnosis (using the European consensus definition of late presentation) [1, 22]. While antiretroviral therapy (ART) coverage has expanded in most countries, selleck screening library the scale-up in Eastern Europe and Central Asia lags far behind the increase in new infections, and limited access to ART in many countries contributes significantly to high levels of late presentation. Although the overall situation is better in Western Europe, there are many settings there where HIV test access, uptake and linkage to care remain poor. Published data from European countries on linkage to HIV medical care and treatment are,

however, lacking and few countries monitor HIV quality of care locally or nationally. To fully appraise the success of initiatives to expand HIV testing across Europe in enabling improved health outcomes and reduced transmission, monitoring is required of prompt access to HIV medical care, ART uptake, retention in care and treatment success. There currently are no standard definitions or accepted methods to assess and compare these critical quality of care indicators across Europe. A focus area for HIV in Europe will be to look at how the treatment continuum concept, first developed in the USA and useful in demonstrating how successfully persons living with HIV infection are diagnosed and treated, can be implemented in the monitoring of HIV responses across Europe.