1 December is World Aids Day. This year its theme is “Global solidarity, shared responsibility”. Despite the progress made in the fight against HIV it is still a major problem in public healthcare. 

According to World Health Organization (WHO) data there are close to 38 million people in the world living with HIV/AIDS, with 1.9 million new infections registered in 2019 and 690,000 deaths. According to data of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the WHO European office the number of newly diagnosed cases in 2019 throughout the entire European region went up by 136,000.

Out of all people infected with HIV in the world, almost 68% receive antiretroviral therapy. In Bulgaria 98% of all people with HIV/AIDS are included in this therapy.

A total of 3,467 people with HIV infection have been registered in this country in the period from 1986 until 25 November 2020, with 183 new cases of people who are HIV positive since the beginning of 2020. The number of newly registered infections is several fold higher among men than women, a tendency that has prevailed over the past few years. Once again this year around 89% of all new cases are the result of sexual contact (46% are among men, and almost 42% as a result of heterosexual contacts). Out of all newly registered cases almost 9% were infected as a result of injecting drug use. Data show that 60% of the new infections are among 30 to 50 year-olds, the age group affected most being the 30 to 39 year-olds (33%).

The majority of the new HIV infections are predominantly in big cities, the highest number of infections - 40% - being in Sofia. According to data, 5% of the new cases in 2020 were registered among foreign citizens from different regions of the world. The Ministry of Health provides antiretroviral therapy to all people in the country who need it, whatever their health insurance status. NGOs, which the ministry has contracts with, are also part of the HIV prevention efforts among vulnerable groups.

The rate of new HIV infections per 100,000 in Bulgaria is 3.7, the EU average in 2019 being 5.4. The highest HIV infection rates were registered in Malta (16.2), Latvia (15.4) and Estonia (13.4), and the lowest– in Slovakia (1.9) and Slovenia (1.6).

Edited by Darina Grigorova