In 2023, the number of new HIV diagnoses across Europe rose, with nearly all countries reporting cases, according to a report by the WHO’s European office and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
This marks a 2.4 per cent increase from 2022, with 113,000 new cases identified in 47 European nations. This data comes shortly after a separate study in the Lancet HIV journal highlighted a global decline of 21.9 per cent in new HIV infections from 2010 to 2021, though central and eastern Europe experienced a rise in both incidence and mortality.
Since the start of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the early 1980s, over 2.6 million people have been diagnosed with the virus in the 53 countries within the WHO European region. Health authorities attribute part of the 2023 increase to greater testing efforts, which helped detect cases following a decline during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is still much to be done in terms of prevention, as about 30 per cent of people living with HIV remain unaware of their status.
Notably, 21 European countries reported a higher number of new diagnoses in 2023 compared to the previous year, with eight nations – Azerbaijan, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Malta, and Montenegro – experiencing their highest annual number of new cases in over a decade.
