One in 2 people living with HIV are diagnosed late in the course of their infection. So late, that two out of three people with AIDS in the EU/EEA receive their diagnosis within only three months of discovering they had HIV. For World AIDS Day 2017, ECDC highlighted the problem of late diagnosis and the need for diversifying HIV testing approaches.
The WHO European Region is the only Region worldwide where the number of new HIV infections is rising. With more than 160 000 people newly diagnosed with HIV across the Region, including more than 29 000 new cases from the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA), this trend continued in 2016.
An estimated 122 000 people living with HIV across Europe are not aware of their HIV infection and a large number out of the estimated 9 million Europeans that are affected by chronic hepatitis B or C have not yet been tested or diagnosed. ECDC welcomes the efforts of European HIV-Hepatitis Testing Week which starts today.
A study published in The Lancet HIV today showed that while the rate of newly reported HIV cases in Europe remained steady in younger people between 2004 and 2015, it increased by 2% each year overall in older people. With around 30 000 newly diagnosed HIV infections reported each year over the last decade, the HIV epidemic remains a significant public health problem in the 31 countries of the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA),
An estimated 4.7 million Europeans are living with chronic hepatitis B and almost 4 million (3.9) with chronic hepatitis C infection. However, large numbers of them are not even aware of their infection as they have not yet been tested and diagnosed.
Today, the World Health Organization publishes its Global Guidelines for the Prevention of Surgical Site Infections, which include a list of recommendations prepared by top leading experts and based on a review of the latest evidence in the area.
On 21 May, Public Health England (PHE) reported that a retrospective investigation identified 13 patients with endocarditis, surgical site infection or disseminated infection with Mycobacterium chimaera or other Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) species within four years of surgery involving cardiopulmorary bypass.
Hepatitis and other drug-related infectious diseases will be the focus of ‘Hepatitis week’, taking place at the EU drugs agency (EMCDDA) in Lisbon from 12–16 June 2017. The initiative will bring together some 100 specialists from: EU Member States, candidate and potential candidate countries to the EU, as well as partner agencies, civil society and professional organisations.
Today, ECDC’s Healthcare-associated Infections Surveillance Network (HAI-Net) publishes two updated protocols for the surveillance of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs): one for surgical site infections (SSIs) and prevention indicators, and another one for HAIs and prevention indicators in intensive care units (ICUs), both to be used by European hospitals. An update of the protocol for the surveillance of Clostridium difficile infections (CDIs) was published on 21 April.