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More than a quarter of people diagnosed with HIV in France in 2017 and 2018 were so "too late", which delays their care and curbs the fight against HIV transmission, badyzed Tuesday Public Health France.
Between January 2017 and September 2018, 28% of people discovered that they were carriers of the advanced-stage AIDS virus, that is, when the disease had already occurred or with very low level of CD4 cells, white blood cells targeted by HIV.
This proportion has not declined since 2013, even as the number of laboratory tests continues to increase, warns Public Health France, ahead of World AIDS Day on Saturday.
In 2017, 49% of HIV-positive discoveries involved people who said they had never been tested before, adds the public body.
"HIV testing should therefore be further intensified in the most-at-risk populations, to reduce the proportion of those who are unaware of their HIV status so that they can benefit from antiretroviral therapy," he says.
Treatment, "which avoids the transmission of HIV from HIV-positive people to their partners, is a major challenge to control the epidemic," adds the National Public Health Agency.
Public Health France is not yet able to give the total number of people who discovered their HIV status in 2017
In 2016, this number was estimated at around 6,000 people, down 5% from 2013.
Biologists and clinicians are required to report the cases of HIV they have diagnosed since April 2016, but reports received underestimate the actual number of cases, are time-consuming, or contain missing data, explains Public Health France.
© 2018 AFP
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