After having declined for several years, the number of people infected each year with HIV, the cause of AIDS, has stabilized since 2021. This is still the case in 2023. According to the Ministry of Health, which is based on on the data of Public Health France, “3,650 people were infected with HIV” in the country last year.
The total number of people infected each year decreased over the period 2012-2021, in particular thanks to a reduction in the number of contaminations among men born in France who have sexual relations with men. However, this number does not decrease among the populations most at risk.
55% of people who discover their HIV status are heterosexual
The number of people who discovered their HIV status in 2023 is estimated at nearly 5,500, a number that has been increasing steadily since 2020. The increase particularly affects people “born abroad, particularly women infected through heterosexual intercourse and men who have sex with men”according to Public Health France. Among people who discovered their HIV status in 2023, 55% are heterosexual people, 40% are men who have sex with men, 3% transgender people, 1% drug users and less than 1% children.
More than 10,000 people live with HIV without being diagnosed
Public Health France estimates that 10,756 people live with HIV without being diagnosed. At the same time, medical biology laboratories have carried out 7.5 million serologies in 2023three times more than in 2022, in particular thanks to the “VIHTest” system, a “free screening, without prescription or appointment”implemented in January 2022, according to the Ministry of Health.
The situation is improving globally, PrEP is a consensus
HIV infections worldwide fell in 2023 to their historic low, in a range between one million and 1.7 million, according to the annual report published this Tuesday by the UNAIDS agency. This trend is primarily fueled by a clear improvement in sub-Saharan Africa, by far the region of the world most exposed to the AIDS epidemic. The picture nevertheless remains mixed since infections are rebounding in other regions, such as Eastern Europe or the Middle East. We are far from the objectives of the UN which would like to virtually eradicate the epidemic by 2030.
There is consensus among HIV experts on one point: preventive treatments, known as PrEP – pre-exposure prophylaxis -, have become crucial in the fight against the epidemic. Taken by people who are not infected, but have behaviors considered to be at risk, they work very well to avoid infection. Specialists are therefore pushing for their expansion. Thus, in France, the health authorities have just made this the highlight of new recommendations: PrEP should no longer be reserved for men in same-sex relationships.
