Aim: AIM. The aim was to describe the epidemiological situation of newly diagnosed HIV infections and AIDS cases in Poland in 2015 in comparison to the previous years.
Materials and methods: Descriptive analysis of newly detected HIV cases and AIDS cases was performed based on routine notifications by clinicians and laboratories. Data on the number of HIV tests from annual survey among laboratories were also used.
Results: In 2015 there were 1,281 HIV cases newly diagnosed in Poland (diagnosis rate 3.33 per 100,000 population), including 23 among non-Polish citizens. The rate of new cases rose by 15% compared to the previous year as well as to the median in 2009 - 2013. The total number of AIDS cases was 128 (incidence 0.38 per 100,000) and 41 AIDS patients died (0.11 per 100,000). HIV infection was mainly detected among people aged from 20 to 39 years (71.3%) and among males (84.8%). Among men, 67.6% of newly diagnosed infections with known transmission category were acquired by men who have sex with men (MSM). The percentage of infected men in this group, compared to 2014, increased from 64.5% to 67.6%. The percentage of newly diagnosed persons infected by heterosexual contact decreased from 24.1% to 21.1% (persons with known transmission category). The percentage of people with HIV diagnosed at the same time as AIDS diagnosed decreased in comparison with 2014 (from 9.2% to 6.9% of newly detected HIV infections).
Conclusions: HIV epidemic continues to develop among MSM in Poland. However, assessment of epidemiological situation is limited by the missing data on the probable transmission route in a large percentage of reported newly detected HIV infection.
Keywords: AIDS; HIV infection; epidemiology; Poland; 2015.