Figures released today by the National Disease Surveillance Centre reveal that the total number of newly diagnosed HIV cases for 2001 is 299, compared with 290 in 2000. During the second half of 2001, there were 138 cases in total.
Of these, the majority of cases, 59%, were among heterosexuals, 23% of the cases were among men who have sex with men, and 8% were among injecting drug users. Among the heterosexual category, 61 cases were from Sub-Saharan Africa, 12 were from Ireland and seven were from North Africa.
In 2001, 88 infants were born to infected mothers. However, only three of these infants are deemed to have been infected to date, reflecting the effectiveness of the antenatal HIV screening programme and the treatment and follow up services for HIV infected pregnant women in Ireland.
The report also welcomes the reduction in the number of cases among intravenous drug users, from 83 cases in 2000 to 38 cases in 2001.
There were 8 cases of AIDS reported in the second half of 2001, bringing the total number of cases reported in 2001 to 12. The total number of AIDS cases to date is 719. There were two reports of AIDS deaths during the period, bringing the total AIDS related deaths to three for 2001 and total to date to 365.
