more screenings but also discoveries of HIV positivity in France in 2023

Nearly 5,500 people discovered their HIV status in France in 2023, according to data published Friday October 11 by Public Health France, which also highlights an increase in the number of HIV screenings.

“With 7.5 million HIV serologies carried out in 2023, the increase in HIV screening activity has accelerated, half driven by the increase in use of the “VIHTest” system, screening without a prescription and free in the laboratory. for socially insured people, implemented from 2022 »notes the agency.

Around 3,650 people were infected with HIV in France in 2023 (i.e. an incidence rate of 5.3 per 100,000 inhabitants), and that same year, nearly 5,500 people discovered their HIV status. After falling in 2020, at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, HIV discoveries have been increasing since then.

Decline over ten years

In 2023, this “The increase particularly affects people born abroad, particularly women infected through heterosexual intercourse and men who have sex with men” (MSM), observes Public Health France, which recalls “the need to guarantee access to care for people born abroad and to intensify preventive actions towards them”.

However, if we look at the entire period 2012-2023, the number of HIV discoveries has decreased by 10%. This long-term decrease is more marked among homosexuals born in France, particularly among “more frequent use of screening (…) allowing more rapid treatment of HIV-positive people, and through the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for some of them”according to the agency.

Late diagnoses

But late diagnoses remain frequent (43% of discoveries in 2023), which represents a loss of opportunity for care and a risk of transmission of HIV to partners before starting antiretroviral treatment.

At the regional level, the HIV epidemic remains marked by “a particularly worrying situation in Guyana, and to a lesser extent in Mayotte, the West Indies and Ile-de-France”reports Public Health France.

Also in 2023, the number of people diagnosed with one of the main bacterial sexually transmitted infections, Chlamydia trachomatis (55,500), gonorrhea (23,000) and syphilis (5,800), has increased, as it has for several years.

This increase results, according to Public Health France, from an increased circulation of these infections, but also from increased screening – which could further increase thanks to the system in place since September 2023 for a test without a prescription in the laboratory.

Although reimbursed screenings mainly concerned women, bacterial STIs are at least as common in men (Chlamydia trachomatis), or even much more (syphilis and gonorrhea).