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UK - AIDS & HIV Statistics Summary
An estimated 53,000 adults were living with HIV in
the UK at the end of 2003, of whom 14,300 (27%) were unaware of
their infection.
In 2004, there were at least 6,403 new diagnoses of
HIV, contributing to a total of 70,783 since the epidemic began (as
of the end of March 2005). The 2004 number will rise as further
reports are received, and is expected to exceed 7,000.
There have been 21,280 diagnoses of AIDS in the UK.
It is known that at least 13,145 of these people have died. It
should be noted that the difference between these figures does not
provide a very accurate estimate of the number of people living with
AIDS in the UK: the figure will inevitably include some people who
have moved abroad after diagnosis as well as some records belonging
to the same person which have not been successfully matched.
When the tests for HIV antibodies became widely
available in the mid 1980s, three main risk groups of HIV were
identified. These were men who have sex with men, injecting drug
users and people who have received treatment with blood products.
Many of these people came forward for testing in the mid 1980s,
after which there was a decline in the annual number of HIV
diagnoses. This trend was reversed towards the end of the decade and
there were between 2,500 and 2,800 diagnoses each year from 1990 to
1997.
Since 1999 there has been a steep increase in the
number of HIV diagnoses. During 2004, reports show that 6,403 people
had been diagnosed with HIV in the UK. This number is expected to
rise as further data are received (there were 7,136 reports in
2003). The major component of the rapid increase in recent years has
been in heterosexually acquired infections. Although around 80% of
these are contracted in countries with high HIV prevalence,
infections acquired within the UK have also risen. It should be
noted that an important factor in recent increases has been the
introduction of clinician reporting, which was only introduced for
HIV diagnoses made after the beginning of 2000.
The use of HAART (Highly Active Antiretroviral
Therapy) has proved effective in delaying HIV associated deaths and
the onset of AIDS. This resulted in a steep decline in the number of
AIDS cases reported each year between 1994 and 1998. However, the
number of cases has remained more or less constant since then, lying
in the range 690-890. Some of the progressions to AIDS or death,
which continue to occur in the era of widely available HAART, may be
attributed to patient non-compliance or failure to tolerate a
demanding drug regime. However, evidence of the emergence of drug
resistant viral strains cannot be ignored. |
