The latest statistics on AIDS & HIV in the UK were published in January 2006 by the Health Protection Agency.¹ For more UK statistics, see our UK summary and the UK tables in our AIDS statistics index.

The tables below show that many HIV and AIDS diagnoses have been among men who have sex with men. However, the number of heterosexually acquired HIV infections diagnosed in the UK has risen dramatically over the last 15 years. In 1999, for the first time, the rate of heterosexually acquired HIV diagnoses overtook the rate of diagnoses in men who have sex with men. In 2005, heterosexually acquired infections accounted for 60% of new HIV diagnoses.

Injecting drug use accounts for around 31% of all HIV diagnoses ever made in Scotland, but only 5% of those made in England. Most of the Scottish diagnoses among injecting drug users date from the 1980s.

On this page the term 'exposure category' refers to the most probable route of transmission of HIV infection.

UK AIDS cases by exposure category, all years until the end of December 2005

How HIV infection was probably acquired Male Female Total % Sex between men* 12,808 0 12,808 58% Sex between men and women 2,964 3,153 6,117 28% Injecting drug use 888 346 1,234 6% Mother to infant 310 292 602 3% Blood/tissue transfer or blood factor 754 119 873 4% Other/undetermined 233 31 264 1% Total 17,957 3,941 21,898 100% Percentage total 82% 18% 100%

* Includes 334 men who had also injected drugs

HIV infected persons by country and exposure category, all years until the end of December 2005

How HIV infection was probably acquired Country of diagnosis % England Wales N. Ireland Scotland UK total Channel Isles/ Isle of Man Sex between men* 33,477 552 206 1,499 35,734 33 47% Sex between men and women 28,455 393 160 1,341 30,349 32 40% Injecting drug use 3,080 46 10 1,245 4,381 11 6% Blood/tissue transfer or blood factor 1,605 58 21 121 1,805 3 2% Other/undetermined** 4,175 53 11 216 4,455 6 6% Total† 69,241 1,076 384 4,191 76,765 85 100%

* Includes 768 men who had also injected drugs ** Includes 1,349 children of HIV infected mothers † Includes 41 unclassified cases with sex not stated on the report

How people probably became infected by year

Year of HIV diagnosis How HIV infection was probably acquired Sex between men* Sex between men and women Injecting drug use 1989 or earlier 9,379 1,073 1,866 1990 1,705 536 201 1991 1,717 649 242 1992 1,644 780 188 1993 1,512 777 203 1994 1,485 794 167 1995 1,477 854 181 1996 1,556 839 174 1997 1,416 1,016 161 1998 1,372 1,170 132 1999 1,373 1,445 113 2000 1,520 2,021 114 2001 1,769 2,899 133 2002 1,892 3,800 115 2003 2,024 4,503 149 2004 2,214 4,347 131 2005 1,712 1,878 112 Total 35,767 30,381 4,392

* Includes 768 men who had also injected drugs

Notes

Numbers, particularly for recent years, will rise as further reports are received.

Due to rounding to the nearest whole number, percentage columns may appear not to total 100%.

Last updated February 3, 2006