Changes in the trends of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, based on surveillance data of Warsaw cohort

Abstract

HIV infection remains one of the major public health concern, with evidence of increasing, even in several developed countries. The article provides an overview of HIV surveillance data of patients from outpatient clinic in Warsaw. In Poland the first HIV infection was detected in 1985, and the first case of AIDS one year later. In the period between 1990–2000y among HIV infected patients approximately 70% were intravenous drug users. In the next decade the shift of predominant mode of transmission for HIV infection is observed. From 2001 onward, the increasing number of persons infected through sexual contacts, without the past history of intravenous drug using has been noticed. Since 2005, among newly reported HIV infected adolescents the sexual contact between men followed by heterosexual contact has been the main route of transmission. The significant increase of this mode of transmission was noticed in 2008. The deaths rate remains relatively low, even decreases.