HIV and AIDS
diagnoses and deaths in HIV-infected individuals: by
year of occurrence
By the end of 2002 the estimated number of people
living with HIV in the United Kingdom was estimated
at 49,500, an increase of 20 per cent compared with
2001. This figure includes undiagnosed and diagnosed
people, with a third of these cases estimated as unaware
of their condition.
In 2002, 5711 new HIV cases
were diagnosed. This was almost double the number
diagnosed in 1998, which was 2818.
By contrast, the numbers of
AIDS diagnoses and deaths in HIV-infected individuals
declined after the introduction of effective therapies
in the mid-1990s, and in more recent years have remained
relatively constant, with 777 reports of AIDS and
3950 deaths so far reported for 2002.
The biggest component in the
rapid rise in the numbers of new HIV diagnoses has
been in heterosexually acquired infections. Since
1999 the number of new HIV diagnoses from heterosexuals
have outnumbered those from homosexual and bisexual
men.
The 3,305 new HIV infections
diagnosed in 2002 that were heterosexually acquired
represent an increase of more than three times the
number in 1996, when less than 900 such infections
were diagnosed annually.
Two thirds (2083) of these heterosexually
acquired HIV infections diagnosed in 2002 were in
women, and three quarters of the total in both men
and women(2,472) were probably acquired in Africa.
However, in 2002, there were
1,691 diagnoses attributable to sex between men, and
this number will rise as further reports are received
and as follow-up continues.
The Health Protection Agency
(HPA) asserts that once data for 2002 are complete,
it is probable that a steady rise in HIV diagnoses
in homosexual and bisexual men since 1999 will be
apparent.
Of the 12,501 men and women
seen for care in England, Wales and Northern Ireland
in 2002 for which ethnicity was reported, 8262 (68
per cent) were black-African, 2580 (21 per cent) were
white and 501 (4 per cent) black-Caribbean.
