This research was carried out in collaboration with the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) and is based on a new tool for assessing the prevalence of HIV.
António Diniz, former director of the National Programme for AIDS/HIV Infection, said the work allows a better overview of the real situation in Portugal.
It indicates close to 45,000 people are believed to live with HIV in Portugal, which is below a United Nations’ estimate of 65,000 to 70,000 people.
Speaking to Lusa News Agency, António Diniz explained that this new study allows an assessment that around 40,000 of the estimated 44,176 cases of infection in Portugal are duly diagnosed, meaning some 10 percent of infected people are undiagnosed.
Thus, Portugal would have fulfilled the first of three objectives laid out by the United Nations Programme for HIV for 2020, which is for countries to have 90 percent of people living with HIV diagnosed.
The other two goals are to have 90 percent of diagnosed cases in treatment, and 90 percent of those in treatment to reach an undetectable viral level, which significantly reduces the possibility of transmitting the disease.