Lanzarote has diagnosed a total of 260 cases of HIV/AIDS between 2000 and 2017, of which eleven were detected in the last year, which represents 5.4 and 3.7 percent respectively of the infections declared in the archipelago as a whole, according to the latest Epidemiological Bulletin on HIV published by the Canarian Health Service.
Throughout the Canary Islands, the accumulated number of new HIV infections diagnosed since 2000 amounts to 4,793, of which 379 have died, which represents a lethality of 7.9%. Of these, 297 infections were detected in 2017, with seven deaths occurring in this last year. The rate of new infections in the Canary Islands for 2017 is 12.54 per 10,000 inhabitants, while in the case of Lanzarote it is 6.67.
Regarding the island of Lanzarote, data is given per year since 2008, when there were 22 new infections. In 2009 there were 14, in 2010 a total of 21, in 2011 six were diagnosed, in 2012 there were nine, in 2013 they rose to 18, in 2014 17 were declared, in 2015 a total of 13, in 2016 17 were detected and in 2017 a total of 11.
However, in 2011, 308 patients were treated at the Molina Orosa Hospital with HIV, in 2012 a total of 318, in 2013 to 345, in 2014 and 2015 to 350, in 2016 to 403, and in 2017 to 469, which meant a total cost in antiretrovirals of 14.3 million euros.
Most are men, aged 30 to 39
Of the 4,793 HIV/AIDS infections diagnosed in the Canary Islands since 2000, 83.9% are men, with the age group most affected, both in men and women, being those between 30 and 39 years of age. Regarding origin, 72.7% of cases, that is, 3,485, are of Spanish origin, while those from America account for 11% of the total, those from Africa 8% and those from Europe 7.8%.
By risk factors, 86.9% of cases have a sexual transmission mechanism, with 62.8% being homosexual and 37.2% heterosexual, while 6.7% are injecting drug users.
69.5% of infections, asymptomatic
According to the latest Epidemiological Bulletin on HIV from the Canarian Health Service, 69.5% of new infections have been diagnosed in the asymptomatic phase, while 12.9% have symptoms without meeting AIDS criteria. However, 16.5% of new infections have been declared in the AIDS disease phase, "which indicates a delay in the detection of HIV infection, although this percentage has been decreasing since 2005, the year that reached 20% of diagnoses".
Hospital centers are the ones that prescribe the most HIV tests with 50.1% of cases. In the case of Lanzarote, of the 260 infections diagnosed since 2000, a total of 246 were in the Molina Orosa Hospital. However, the percentage of requests from Primary Care Centers has increased in recent years to 30.1%. 9.7% come from non-hospital ETS/HIV centers/consultations, 2.9% from penitentiary centers, 0.3% from drug addiction care centers and 0.1% from family planning centers or consultations. 5.5% have been detected in other services and in 0.2% of cases it is not known where the test was prescribed.
