Switzerland - Germany - Austria

Switzerland - Germany - Austria

In Switzerland, each year since 1997, 700-800 new people have reported HIV-positive. In Germany, for 2008, 2,800 HIV-infected people were reported, in an upward trend. At the end of 2008, in Germany there were some 63,500 people with the HIV in their blood, some 10,500 of whom were living at that time with the full-blown disease, which is still incurable. In Austria, 505 new infections were established in 2008. That is more than in the years 1994 to 2006, in which the number of newly diagnosed HIV infections was always below 500 per year. In 2006 almost 42% of new infections came from heterosexual contacts (in 1998 it was 27%!), 28.6% via homosexual contacts and 20.5% from intravenous drug taking.

Thanks to the introduction of modern therapy (ART) in 1996, the number of people who became ill or died from Aids fell significantly in all three countries. Nevertheless, every year about 200 people in Switzerland become ill with Aids and more than 100 die from it. The total number of people who live with an HIV infection is also still increasing from year to year in Switzerland. There are currently some 25,000 in Switzerland (cautious estimate by UNAIDS/WHO).