Organized every December 1st since 1988, World AIDS Day is an international day dedicated to raising awareness about the AIDS pandemic caused by the virus. It allows various public and private partners to promote prevention, treatment, and care for HIV.
The PACA region is the second most affected region in France. Very active throughout the year, the AIDS Action Collective of Alpes-Maritimes, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, organizes an awareness day.
Based on surveillance data, the Institute for Public Health Surveillance (InVS) estimates that nearly 6,600 people discovered their HIV-positive status in France in 2014 (a stable figure since 2007).
Sad record: in the Alpes-Maritimes department, the most affected in PACA, the still provisional figure for the year 2014 shows a 20% increase compared to the figures available last year at the same time.
The PACA region is the 2nd most affected region in metropolitan France by the epidemic, with a rate of HIV-positive diagnoses of 109 per million inhabitants in 2014.
With a 20% increase compared to the figures available last year at the same time, the Alpes-Maritimes department is facing a marked rise in the number of HIV-positive declarations: 131 in 2014.
This is the highest number recorded since the beginning of mandatory surveillance in 2003. The rate of discoveries in this department increased from 100.8 per million inhabitants in 2013 to 121 per million inhabitants in 2014.
A Global Epidemic
In 2014/2015, UNAIDS estimates that:
36.9 million people are living with HIV worldwide
2 million people were newly infected with HIV = approximately 5,600/day, of which 30% of the 5,000 newly infected adults over 15 years old are between 15 and 24 years old
1.2 million people died from AIDS-related illnesses
Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most affected region with 25.8 million people living with HIV. In 2014, it accounted for 70% of the world’s new HIV infections.
UNAIDS highlights the decline in new infections and AIDS-related deaths over the past decade, as well as the increase in antiretroviral coverage (15.8 million individuals under treatment in June 2015).
