HIV diagnoses in Italy are starting to rise again: last year there were 1,888, equal to 2% more than 2021 and 34% more than 2020. It is the second consecutive increase after more than a decade of decline. However, the trend is affected by the experience of the pandemic and the collapse in diagnoses recorded in 2020 (-44% on an annual basis). Overall, the 2022 figure is 25% lower than 2019 and, compared to 10 years ago, the cases have more than halved. This is the picture that emerges from the update of the national surveillance of new diagnoses of HIV infection and AIDS cases, edited by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità and published on the occasion of the World AIDS Day which is celebrated on December 1st.
According to the report, last year in Italy there was an average HIV incidence of 3.2 new cases per 100 thousand inhabitants, lower than that observed among Western European and European Union countries (5 .1 per 100 thousand). Among the Regions, in 2022 the highest rates of new HIV diagnoses were recorded in Lazio (4.8 per 100 thousand inhabitants), Tuscany (4.0), Abruzzo (3.9), Campania (3.9) . Almost 79% of new HIV diagnoses involved males, while the main mode of contagion is sexual intercourse (43% heterosexual, 41% MSM). The infections attributable to people who use drugs are 4.3%. The number of people living with HIV is growing, rising from 127 thousand to 142 thousand between 2012 and 2021 (+12%).
The situation in Europe
In 2022, 22,995 were registered in the countries of the European Union and the European Economic Area, equal to 5.1 diagnoses per 100 thousand inhabitants. This is a sharp increase – of 30.8% – compared to 2021, when diagnoses were equal to 3.9 per 100 thousand inhabitants, even if infections are decreasing by 3.8% compared to the pre-pandemic period. These are some data contained in the ‘HIV/Aids surveillance in Europe’ report drawn up by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization.
“While an increase in diagnoses in 2022 might seem like a bad thing, it is evidence that we are moving in the right direction, with many people living with HIV better able to access testing, treatment and support services they need”, said the director of the ECDC, Andrea Ammon, in a statement. According to the report, over 90% of infections occur through sexual intercourse (46.3% with heterosexual ones, 45.8% with homosexual ones); 5.9% of infections are linked to the use of injecting drugs.
It is also confirmed that many diagnoses are late: approximately 50% of all new cases at the time of diagnosis have a Cd4 lymphocyte count of less than 350 per cubic millimeter; half of these have levels below 200 which indicate an advanced infection. “These data indicate that people became infected many years earlier, suggesting problems in access and uptake of HIV testing for some segments of the population,” the document reads.
However, the AIDS situation is improving. In 2022, there were 2,349 AIDS diagnoses, with a rate of 0.6 diagnoses per 100 thousand inhabitants, which corresponds to half of that recorded 10 years ago. The reduction in AIDS-related deaths was of a similar magnitude: in 2022 there were 767, almost half compared to the 1,373 in 2013.
Read the full article on ANSA.it
2023-12-01 14:21:00
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