According to the report “Infeção VIH em Portugal – 2023”, in the year 2022, there was a reduction of 56% in new HIV cases and a reduction of 74% in the new cases of AIDS, compared to data from 2013 to 2022.

It is important to note that human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) are two different diseases, as being infected with HIV does not mean the people will also have an AIDS diagnosis. AIDS is the final stage of HIV infection; thus, the health authorities aim to prevent the spread of the virus through the immune system, preventing the infected people from being diagnosed with AIDS.

HIV in 2022 in numbers

There were 804 new HIV cases registered in Portugal, in 2022, 75.5% of the cases registered in people more than 15 years (inclusive). The Portuguese health authorities were notified that a three-year-old child was infected with HIV. Despite not being born in Portugal, the child is now established in the country, and it was concluded that the child was infected by the mother.

54.5% of new cases of HIV registered are in people from 20 to 39 years old, and 23% are registered in people above 50 years old. The majority of the new cases are reported in men. In total, 606 men were diagnosed with HIV against 197 women diagnosed with HIV, in 2022. According to the report, out of 803 cases, diagnosed in adults, 44.2% of the cases were registered in men who have sex with other men and 20 cases were transmitted while sharing needles, for injecting drugs.

2022 was the year with fewer AIDS diagnoses; with 128 new cases in the country.

INSA and DGS ranked some of the municipalities where HIV was diagnosed the most, with Amadora (Lisbon) being the municipality with the most diagnoses, followed by Portimão (Faro), Lisbon, Sintra and Almada (Setúbal).

In the last 40 years, Portugal registered 66 061 HIV cases, having 23 637 of them reached the AIDS stage. During these 40 years, 15 779 infected people have died.

Working on prevention

The Portuguese authorities still work a lot on the prevention of the infection.

In 2022, 5,120,321 male condoms and 136, 900 female condoms were distributed, which can be picked up in a Centro de Saúde for free.

The same prevention is being made with regards to drug addicts, in order to avoid the sharing of needles. In 2022, the Portuguese authorities gave more than a million needles to those who were in danger of sharing with other people, for free.

The full report “Infeção VIH em Portugal – 2023”, can be consulted here (https://repositorio.insa.pt/handle/10400.18/8786)

Author

Deeply in love with music and with a guilty pleasure in criminal cases, Bruno G. Santos decided to study Journalism and Communication, hoping to combine both passions into writing. The journalist is also a passionate traveller who likes to write about other cultures and discover the various hidden gems from Portugal and the world. Press card: 8463. 

Bruno G. Santos