Background:  For more than 20 years, HIV/AIDS surveillance in the 53 countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region was carried out by the network EuroHIV. From January 2008, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the WHO Regional Office for Europe (WHO Euro) have taken over this surveillance.

Methods:  We describe HIV surveillance data for 2006 and present the new framework for HIV surveillance in Europe. Newly diagnosed cases of HIV infection were reported by 50 countries in either aggregate or individual format, and 50 countries have reported individual and anonymous AIDS cases. Data are presented for the West (23 countries), Centre (15 countries), and East (15 countries).

Result:  In 2006, 86,912 new diagnoses of HIV infection were reported, The 4 countries that reported rates of >200 new HIV diagnoses per million population were:  Estonia (504), Ukraine (288), Russian Federation (275), and Portugal (205). In the East, 53,024 (211 per million) new diagnoses of HIV infection were reported. This number has recently increased but is much lower than the peak observed in 2001. Mode of transmission was not reported for 40% of cases and injecting drug use was the most probable route of transmission for 62% of the remaining cases. In the West, 25,241 newly diagnosed HIV (83 per million) cases were reported, an increase of 38% since 2001. Mode of transmission was not reported for 21% of cases, the predominant mode of transmission was heterosexual contact (10,722; 54%), particularly among persons originating from countries with generalized epidemics. More than a third (37%; 7410) of the new HIV diagnoses was among men who have sex with men, which represents a continued increase since 2001. In central Europe, relatively small numbers of new HIV diagnoses were reported (1806; 9.4 per million). The incidence of AIDS has declined in the West (16 per million) but has increased in the East (25 per million).

Conclusions:  The number of new HIV diagnoses cases is still increasing in Europe. Prevention campaigns targeted at populations at risk are needed. Improving surveillance and the comparability of data will help support HIV prevention and control of the epidemic. HIV/AIDS surveillance in Europe has moved to new structures. ECDC and WHO Euro work together to ensure timeliness and accuracy of the data collection for the 53 countries of the region. The validated data are stored in central Web-based database to which each national correspondent has full access.