Epidemiological surveillance of HIV/AIDS in Navarra

Abstract

More than fifteen years have passed since the first cases of AIDS were diagnosed in Navarra in 1985. According to the notifications received from then until December 2001, 2,400 people have been counted with HIV infection, of whom approximately 700 have developed AIDS, and 565 have died of AIDS or other causes. The incidence of new infections by HIV, cases of AIDS and deaths related to the latter, have shown a clear tendency to decline in Navarra in recent years. The decrease in cases is very important amongst the users of intravenous drugs, while the cases amongst masculine homo/bisexuals and amongst persons infected following a heterosexual encounter have remained fairly stable. For the first time, starting in 1999, persons infected through a sexual encounter are higher than the users of parenteral drugs. There has been an increase in the proportion of cases of AIDS and infection in persons originating from countries where the disease is endemic, accounting for over 23% of new cases of infection in the years 2000 and 2001. The figures for Navarra also reflect the important reduction of cases of AIDS and AIDS-related deaths since the introduction of more efficient anti-retroviral treatments in 1996. The strategies for the detection of HIV infection in persons who have maintained risk practices is important if we consider that in the years 2000 and 2001, there was a simultaneous diagnosis of infection and disease in one in every five patients. This implies that these persons did not benefit from treatments in the same way as they would have if the diagnosis had been made earlier.