Malta had the third highest rate of new HIV diagnoses in 2016, according to a report issued by the World Health Organisation and the European Centre for Disease Control today to mark World Aids Day on December 1.
In 2016, 29,444 people were diagnosed with HIV in the 31 countries of the EU/EEA, with a rate of 5.9 per 100,000 when adjusted for reporting delay. Latvia topped the list (18.5; 365 cases), followed by Estonia (17.4; 229 cases), and Malta (14.5; 63 cases).
The lowest rates were reported by Slovakia (1.6; 87 cases) and Hungary (2.3; 228 cases).
Malta has had 387 cases reported since 2007.
Overall, 849 individuals were reported to have died due to AIDS-related causes during 2016, although this data is impacted by under-reporting
Similar to recent years, the highest proportion of HIV diagnoses was reported to be in men who have sex with (40%), with heterosexual contact the second most common transmission mode (32%).
Transmission due to injecting drug use accounted for 4% of HIV diagnoses, however, for 23% of new HIV diagnoses the transmission mode was not reported or was reported to be unknown.
Forty-percent of those diagnosed in the EU/EEA in 2016 were migrants, defined as originating from outside of the country in which they were diagnosed, however this varied widely from 80% of cases in Sweden and 75% in Malta to less than 5% of cases in Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania.
From the beginning of the HIV epidemic to the end of 2016, a cumulative total of 354,133 individuals have been diagnosed with AIDS
For the first time in recent years, several countries reported a decline in new HIV diagnoses, even after adjusting for reporting delay. These include: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
On the other hand, since 2006, and taking reporting delay into account, rates of HIV diagnoses have more than doubled in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Malta and Slovakia and increased by over 50% in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Poland, Romania and Slovenia.
Overall, 849 individuals were reported to have died due to AIDS-related causes during 2016, although this data is impacted by under-reporting due to the challenges in many countries in linking to death registries.
Nevertheless, AIDS-related deaths reports have been consistently decreasing since 2007, when 2,172 deaths were reported, suggesting improvements in linkage to care and treatment.
From the beginning of the HIV epidemic to the end of 2016, a cumulative total of 354,133 individuals have been diagnosed with AIDS in the EU/ EEA, with 170,015 deaths and an additional 19,418 persons who were living with HIV who are known to have died of non-AIDS related causes.
Source: ECDC