European HIV/AIDS surveillance report published (2017)

22 January 2018. Related: HIV prevention and transmission.

ECDC and WHO

In 2016, approximately 160,000 people were diagnosed HIV positive in the 53 WHO defined countires in the European region.

Of these, just under 30,000 were from the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA) and 103,000 were from Russia.

Executive summary

For the first time in a number of years, several countries reported a decline in new HIV diagnoses, even after adjusting for reporting delay.

However, similar to recent years, the highest proportion of HIV diagnoses (40%) was reported to be in men who have sex with men (MSM).

While the data in this year’s report indicate alarming rates and increases in new diagnoses in some parts of eastern and central Europe over the last decade, at the same time there has been a tendency towards stabilising or even decreasing rates in some EU/EEA countries.

Trends by transmission mode, for example, show that the number of HIV diagnoses among MSM in the EU/EEA decreased slightly in 2016 and the number of heterosexually acquired cases has decreased steadily over the last decade.

Moreover, in the EU/EEA, the number of AIDS cases, and the number of AIDS-related deaths, has consistently declined since the mid-1990s.

Reference

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). HIV/AIDS surveillance in Europe 2017 – 2016 data. (28 November 2017).
https://ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/hivaids-surveillance-europe-2017-2016-data  (download page)
http://ecdc.europa.eu/sites/portal/files/documents/20171127-Annual_HIV_Report_Cover%2BInner.pdf (PDF)