trends

Abstracted from UNAIDS AIDS Epidemic Update: December 2003

In Western Europe, at the end of 2003, about 520,000 to 680,000 people were living with HIV/AIDS. There were approximately 30,000 to 40,000 people newly infected with HIV in 2002. AIDS related deaths had reduced to about 2600 to 3400 deaths in 2003 in comparison to 8000 deaths in 2002. The decline in the death rate is directly attributed to the widespread availability of antiretroviral treatment.

Heterosexual transmission is driving the HIV epidemic in the Western European countries. However, it is reported that a majority of the new infections were a result of people being infected in a country with high HIV prevalence rate. Most of these new infections occurred in the United Kingdom; where the number of new infections in 2002 was double that in 1998. In the United Kingdom, 70% of heterosexually transmitted HIV cases were among people who had acquired HIV while living in countries with generalized epidemics. A significant share of new infections in the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden were also acquired elsewhere in the world which had a high HIV prevalence rate. In 2002, for the first time since 1997, Germany showed an increase in new HIV infections.

The most common mode of the spread of the HIV infection in Germany , Greece and the Netherlands is dominated by sex between men. The role of injecting drug use in the HIV epidemic varies among the high-income countries. Just over 10% of newly diagnosed HIV cases in 2002 were caused by injecting drug use in these countries.

Portugal is also seeing a significant increase in HIV infections. In Portugal, injecting drug users amounted for more than half the total HIV infections in 2002.

analysis:trends

global | australia and new zealand | caribbean | east asia and pacific | e.europe and central asia | latin america | middle east and north africa | north america | south and south east asia | sub-saharan africa |
western europe