The Balearic Islands has registered the lowest incidence rate of HIV infections in its history, with 7.36 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, following the decrease in HIV infections in 2023, when 89 new infections have been reported in the Islands, the best figure since records have been kept (2003-2023), and 13.6 percent less than in 2022 (103). In a press release, the Regional Ministry of Health informed that World AIDS Day, which has been celebrated for 35 years on December 1, in 2024 has the slogan ‘Emprendemos la senda de los derechos: Mi salud, mi derecho’ (Let’s take the path of rights: My health, my right), with the intention of launching the message that AIDS can be ended if the rights of all people are protected. With human rights at the center and the autonomous communities at the forefront, AIDS as a public health threat can be ended by 2030. For its part, the WHO appeals to leaders and citizens around the world to defend the right to health by redressing the inequalities that hinder progress towards the end of AIDS. In the Balearic Islands, different strategies related to HIV infections are addressed jointly and transversally with other institutions, associations and society in general. Programs are in place to prevent new infections and, at the same time, to achieve early diagnosis and treatment in order to avoid further infections. The promotion of condom use, with special emphasis on the young population, prophylaxis prior to exposure to HIV, sex education and the fight against the stigma that still accompanies infected persons, are other actions carried out.
Lowest rate in history
The results are already being felt. According to unconsolidated data from the Servei d’Epidemiologia, which depends on the General Directorate of Public Health, 89 HIV infections were diagnosed on the islands in 2023, 13.6 percent less than the 103 detected in 2022. In addition, these new infections put the incidence rate at 7.36 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, the lowest in the period 2003-2023 since the registration of accumulated cases, notified or detected in each year, has been carried out. Of the 89 new infections diagnosed last year, the number of cases fell among women, from 33 diagnoses in 2022 to 10 in 2023, and among men, from 113 to 79. In general, fewer cases have been diagnosed, both of Spanish and foreign origin and among both men and women. There has also been a decrease in both recent and late diagnoses. By islands, 76 new cases have been detected in Mallorca, 12 in the Pitiusas and 1 in Menorca. Regarding the categories of transmission, 59 infections occurred among men who had sex with men, 26 among heterosexuals, one in a child of a mother at risk and the remaining three did not know how they were infected. A reading of these data leads to the conclusion that a downward trend in the overall incidence of HIV in the islands is consolidating. The maximum annual rate was in 2008, when 209 infections were diagnosed and stood at 19 cases per 10,000 inhabitants. Since that year, and with slight fluctuations from time to time, the trend has been clearly towards a decrease in new diagnoses.
Balearic Islands, below the national average
Although the annual rate in the Balearic Islands was usually above the national average, the decrease in cases in 2023 equals them. As of June 30, 2024, the Ministry of Health received notification of 3,196 new HIV diagnoses in 2023, representing a rate of 6.65 cases per 100,000 population unadjusted for the delay in notification. After correction for this delay, it is estimated that when the notification of all diagnoses made that year has been completed, the national rate for 2023 will be 7.38 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, higher than the 7.36 new infections in the Balearic Islands. In the 2003-2023 series, 3,270 HIV infections have been diagnosed in the islands: 2,703 in Mallorca (82.7%), 430 in the Pitiusas (13.1%) and 137 in Menorca (4.2%). By gender, 2,675 were men and 595 were women. By age group, the highest percentage (37.8%, 1,237 cases) was between 30 and 39 years of age, followed by those between 40 and 49 (24.8%, 811) and between 20 and 29 years of age (22.8%, 744) in third place. Forty-six percent of infections (1,504) occurred among men who have sex with men, 39.9% (1,305) among heterosexuals and 9.6% (314) among injecting drug users, a category of transmission in marked decline. By nationality, the country of origin of 1,962 of the HIV cases diagnosed in the Balearic Islands between 2003-2023 was Spain, while the remaining 1,307 corresponded to people born outside this country. The nationality of the case that completes the total figure is unknown.
