More than a million Europeans are now living with the AIDS virus. The epidemic is still progressing.
In 2016, more than 57,000 new HIV cases were detected in Europe, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). No less than 1,115,000 European patients are currently suffering from the virus, excluding Russia. The average is 7.7 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
The epidemic continues to grow, especially in Eastern Europe where 80% of new HIV cases have been detected.
Transmission of the virus is increasing among heterosexual people in the eastern part, while transmission of the virus is increasing among men who have sex with men in Western Europe. Injection drug use has caused a third of new infections in Eastern European countries.
“On average, it takes three years between the time a person is infected and the time the diagnosis is made, which is far too long”, pleads Dr Andrea Ammon, director of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control ( ECDC) In Eastern Europe, 1 in 3 infected people do not know their HIV status, compared to 1 in 7 in the rest of Europe.
Of the 150,000 people with AIDS in France, 25,000 are unaware that they are HIV positive. In 2016, the number of people who discovered their HIV status was estimated at around 6,000, according to theINVS. The category of men who have sex with men is still the most affected.
According to an Ifop-Bilendi survey * published Wednesday March 21 on the occasion of Sidaction, 26% of French people aged 15 to 24 wrongly think that there are drugs to cure AIDS (13% more than in 2009), 21% that vaccine can prevent transmission of the virus and 32% they are less likely than others to be infected.
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