Almost 5,500 people discovered their HIV status in France in 2023, according to data published on Friday, October 11 by Public Health France, which also highlights an increase in the number of HIV tests.
“With 7.5 million HIV serologies performed in 2023, the increase in HIV testing activity has accelerated, half driven by the increased use of the “VIHTest” system, free, over-the-counter, in-lab screening for social insured, implemented. from 2022 »says the agency.
About 3,650 people became infected with HIV in France in 2023 (i.e. an incidence rate of 5.3 per 100,000 inhabitants), and in the same year, about 5,500 people discovered their HIV status. After falling in 2020, at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, HIV discoveries have been increasing since then.
Decrease in ten years
In 2023, this “The increase especially affects people born abroad, particularly women infected through heterosexual relations and men who have sex with men” (MSM), notes Public Health France, which recalls “the need to guarantee access to care for people born abroad and intensify preventive actions towards them”.
However, if we look at the entire period 2012-2023, the number of HIV discoveries has decreased by 10%. This long-term decline is most marked among homosexuals born in France, particularly among “more frequent use of screening tests (…) allowing faster treatment of HIV-positive people, and through the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for some of them”according to the agency.
Late diagnoses
But late diagnoses remain common (43% of discoveries in 2023), representing a loss of opportunities for care and a risk of transmitting HIV to partners before starting antiretroviral treatment.
At the regional level, the HIV epidemic continues to be marked by “a particularly worrying situation in Guyana and, to a lesser extent, in Mayotte, the West Indies and Ile-de-France”reports Public Health France.
Also in 2023, the number of people diagnosed with a major sexually transmitted bacterial infection, chlamydia trachomatis (55,500), gonorrhea (23,000) and syphilis (5,800), has increased, as it has been doing for several years.
This increase is due, according to Public Health of France, to a greater circulation of these infections, but also to greater screening, which could increase even further thanks to the system in force since September 2023 for an over-the-counter test in the laboratory.
Although reimbursed screening primarily affects women, bacterial STIs are at least as common in men (chlamydia trachomatis), or even much more (syphilis and gonorrhea).
