Number of Europeans diagnosed with HIV rose in 2023 with new cases in most countries

The number of new HIV diagnoses in Europe rose in 2023, and nearly every country reported cases, according to European health authorities.

Since the HIV/AIDS epidemic began in the early 1980s, more than 2.6 million people have been diagnosed with HIV infection – which spreads through unprotected sex, blood transfusions, sharing of needles, or from mother to infant – in the 53 countries that make up the World Health Organization’s (WHO) European region.

Still, there were 113,000 new HIV diagnoses in 47 European countries in 2023, a 2.4 per cent increase from 2022, according to the report from the WHO’s European office and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

The findings come days after researchers reported in the Lancet HIV journal that globally, the number of new HIV infections dropped by 21.9 per cent between 2010 and 2021, from 2.11 million to 1.65 million. 

However, they said central and eastern Europe saw an increase in HIV incidence and deaths.

According to the new report, 21 European countries had more diagnoses last year than in 2022, with eight – Azerbaijan, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Malta, and Montenegro – seeing their highest number of new cases in one year over the past decade.

The study authors said that the uptick is likely because countries are testing more, reflecting a “rebound” in HIV detection after a drop-off during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But Europe is also facing challenges with prevention, given that about 30 per cent of people who have HIV do not know their status, according to the report. 

630,000 AIDs-related deaths in 2023

While most HIV-positive patients know their status in the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway, only 60 per cent of those in Eastern Europe and Central Asia are aware that they have HIV.

Across the EU and Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway, immigrants and patients who were diagnosed at a late stage accounted for 48 per cent of all HIV diagnoses in 2023, the report found.

While HIV infection cannot be cured, it can be managed as a chronic health condition with the help of antiretroviral drugs, which keep the virus to levels that are low enough that the patient’s immune system can function normally.

But the later the diagnosis, the more likely it is that HIV will progress to AIDS, which killed around 630,000 people worldwide in 2023 according to UNAIDS.

Europe “has made strong progress on improving access to testing and reducing the number of people unknowingly living with HIV, but we still have more work to do,” ECDC chief Dr Pamela Rendi-Wagner said in a statement.

She called for more targeted efforts to ensure vulnerable groups can access prevention, diagnostics, and treatment.

Meanwhile, Dr Hans Henri Kluge, WHO Europe’s regional director, said more work is needed to combat stigma and discrimination, and that more funding is needed to shore up testing and prevention and stop the spread of HIV.