Record number of new HIV cases registered this year

The National Reference Laboratory for HIV/AIDS has just announced that in the first 10 months of this year alone, the number of new registered cases of HIV has already exceeded the previous annual record from 2010. This week the number hit the 200 mark – and it is expected to grow further by the end of 2012.

Džamila Stehlíková, photo: archive of ČRo 7 - Radio Prague

Since the late 1980s, over 1700 people in the Czech Republic have tested HIV positive. Although this number makes up quite a small percentage of the population – much smaller than in many western European countries – this year’s growth of new infections is alarming experts.

Džamila Stehlíková is the head of the National program for HIV/AIDS of the Czech National Institute for Public Health. She says the problem has been getting worse for some time.

“Unfortunately this increase is dramatic, not only this year, but in the past 10 years. While most, although not all, European countries are able to curb the rise in new infections, the Czech Republic now has the highest percentage of new transmitted cases among men with male sexual partners.

"This is alarming, because most of the limited resources that the state invests in prevention actually go towards work done in the gay community. The prevention work is still not sufficient. But the increase is in heterosexual transmissions as well.”

Illustrative photo: Filip Jandourek

Ninety percent of the new cases this year were in fact men, and the vast majority contracted the virus from male partners.

But the National Reference Laboratory has warned that the number of women infected, especial those younger than 25, is also on the rise.

Both the doctors at the laboratory and Ms Stehlikova agree that the primary cause for the alarming escalation in numbers is the sexual behavior of a large part of the population. She says people need to take a more careful approach.

“The possibility that one meets a person who is HIV positive is also growing with each year. It has grown tenfold in the past 10 years. But when it comes to sexual relations, we do not act accordingly. The majority of the population, either homosexual or heterosexual, does not take the risk of infection seriously. The percentage of people using condoms is way below the European average. It is between 30 and 40 percent, which is too little.”

The Czech healthcare system spends around 350 million crowns a year on treatment and care of HIV positive patients and those with AIDS. Less than one percent of that amount, or around 3 million crowns, goes towards preventive measures.

HIV

Currently, prevention programs focus on the most vulnerable groups, such as young people, the homosexual community, drug addicts and sex workers. Peer and face-to-face education programs have been deemed most successful, but there is a consensus that more aggressive efforts and different approaches are necessary. Džamila Stehlíková again:

“We will re-launch a state-wide media campaign, which will appeal to the whole of the population. We want to bring the public’s attention back to the dangers of infection and make them aware that they have to take the basic precautions against contracting HIV in their everyday lives.”