ECDC: The demographics of HIV diagnosis among migrants are shifting

According to the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC), HIV diagnoses among migrants from Latin America, the Caribbean, and central and Eastern Europe now outnumber diagnoses among migrants from sub-Saharan Africa.

Across Europe, 38% of people diagnosed with HIV were not born in the country in which they were diagnosed. This figure, which varies from country to country, has remained stable for the past ten years. However, the demographics of those diagnosed have been changing.

The annual number of HIV diagnoses in sub-Saharan Africans has been falling since 2008, from 2250 in 2007 to 1600 in 2012. Sub-Saharan Africans now form a minority of new diagnoses among migrants. The number of diagnoses in people from Latin America and the Caribbean rose from 730 in 2007 to peak at 1300 in 2010, and now appear to be in decline, with only 900 new diagnoses occurring in 2012. HIV diagnoses are rising in migrants from central and eastern Europe. 300 new cases were diagnosed in central European migrants in 2007; in 2012, the number was 600. Among eastern European migrants the number rose from 100 in 2007 to 300 in 2012.

Within the migrant groups seeing increases in HIV diagnoses, men, especially men who have sex with men (MSM) are most affected.

Migrants from western European countries also make up a significant proportion of diagnoses, but the rate of those diagnoses is not increasing significantly: it has remained around 800 a year between 2007 and 2012.

The study notes that late diagnoses are increasing in migrants from central and eastern Europe, and that this may be due in part to policy. European countries vary as to whether they provide access to antiretroviral therapy for undocumented migrants.