Cablegate: Spain: New Hiv/Aids Infection Rates Continued To

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

060859Z Sep 05

UNCLAS MADRID 003144

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/WE, S/GAC, AND OES/IHA; DEPARTMENT ALSO
PASS TO ESTH COLLECTIVE; HHS FOR OS/OGHA (TERRY GAY); CDC
FOR GLOBAL AIDS PROGRAM

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: TBIO SOCI KHIV SP
SUBJECT: SPAIN: NEW HIV/AIDS INFECTION RATES CONTINUED TO
DECLINE IN 2004

REF: A. 04 MADRID 4290

B. 04 MADRID 3835

1. Health Ministry 2004 statistics on HIV/AIDS in Spain,
released August 16, indicate that new AIDS diagnoses declined
6.6 percent from 2003 to 2004 (from 2,218 new infections in
2003 to 2,071 in 2004). A sampling of some interesting
statistics includes:

-- 37.2 percent of those newly diagnosed were unaware that
they were HIV positive;

-- 57.7 percent of this 37.2 percent were infected via
unprotected sexual relations (with a roughly even split
between those infected via unprotected homosexual and
heterosexual sex);

-- 76.7 percent of all those who were newly diagnosed in
2004 were men;

-- The average age of those newly diagnosed was 40.3 years
(the average age has increased steadily since 1985, when the
figure was 28 years);

-- 45.7 percent of overall new infections were attributed to
sexual transmission;

-- Despite the overall decline in new infections,
transmissions due to sexual relations between homosexual men
increased 1.8 percent from 2003 to 2004;

-- unprotected heterosexual relations was the cause of 52
percent of the new infections among females;

-- overall transmissions linked to heterosexual sex declined
1.9 percent from 2003 to 2004 (from 617 to 605 cases);

-- unprotected heterosexual sex was thus responsible for
29.2 percent of new infections in 2004;

-- New infections among intravenous drug users declined 12
percent from 2003 to 2004 (from 1,089 cases to 958);

-- four cases each were attributed in 2004 to
mother-to-child transmission and blood transfusions;

-- 14.5 percent of those newly infected are foreign
nationals, with 64.4 percent of these cases coming from
developing country nationals (mostly Africans and Latin
Americans);

-- the 2004 figures brings Spain to 71,039 total AIDS cases
since the epidemic broke out in 1981;

-- this makes Spain the second most affected state in
Western Europe after Portugal;

-- however, new infection rates have declined by 69 percent
since 1996 (when anti-retroviral treatment became available).

2. COMMENT: Our Reftel analysis of HIV/AIDS in Spain
remains unchanged. Spain's HIV/AIDS program is well-funded,
well-managed and has proven effective in containing the
spread of the HIV/AIDS in Spain.
AGUIRRE

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