An HIV intervention: The work of the Convictus Eesti group in Estonian prisons

Convictus Eesti is a non‐government organisation (NGO) operating in Estonia that receives some funding from another Convictus branch based in Sweden. Its main activities include extensive needle exchange programmes and provision of prevention information for injecting drug users and their families. The organisation also supports the government in the collection of accurate statistics concerning injecting drug use, such as the health status, socio‐economic circumstances and ethnicity of this particular group, and offers anonymous HIV testing, condom distribution and counselling in their office in Tallinn. In November 2004, Convictus Eesti received confirmation that it will get partial funding for its Day Centre plans in Tallinn from the Estonian Government. The Convictus organisation successfully co‐operates with many other organisations that work actively in penitentiary systems, for example Estonian Network of PLWH(Estonia), DIA ‐ LOGS (Latvia), MONAR (Poland), Blagodiynost (Ukraine), ENDIPP, CEEHRN. There are nine prisons in Estonia and approximately 400 prisoners out of 4700 are HIV+. Considering that HIV testing is voluntary, this number might be three or even four times greater. The average age of infected prisoners is 20‐25 years. Every week, between four and five new HIV cases are discovered in Estonian prisons, and this increase is attributed to the lack of knowledge about hygiene and the danger of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases among prisoners. In addition, the Ministry of Justice states that 70‐80% of prisoners use drugs at least once during their sentence.