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Key facts on HIV epidemic and progress in regions and countries in 2010

Based on Progress report 2011: Global HIV/AIDS response

North America, Western and Central Europe

The total number of people living with HIV in North America and Western and Central Europe reached an estimated 2.2 million in 2010, about one third (34%) more than the 1.6 million in 2001. More than half (about 1.2 million) of the people with HIV in this region live in the United States.

An estimated 88 000 people were newly infected with HIV in 2010, most of them in the United States of America (about 50,000).

At least 745 000 people are receiving ART in high-income countries, including about 430 000 in Europe, 300 000 in North America and the Caribbean, and 16 700 in Asia, Oceania and the Middle East.

The number of people dying from AIDS-related causes has varied little since 2000 (despite the 34% increase in the number of people living with HIV) and totalled about 30 000 in 2010.

The epidemic’s recent trends vary across this region. The rates of diagnosed HIV cases doubled between 2000 and 2009 in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia and increased by more than 50% in Germany and the United Kingdom. In contrast, the number of people newly diagnosed with HIV decreased by more than 20% in Latvia, Portugal and Romania.

Unprotected sex between men continues to be the main driver of HIV transmission, with injecting drug use and unprotected paid sex being minor factors. In the United States, for example, men who have sex with men represent about 2% of the total population but account for 57% of those newly infected.

There are more men living with HIV than women in this region. In 2010, 26% of the people living with HIV in North America and Western and Central Europe were women.

The HIV epidemics among men who have sex with men appear to be resurgent in North America. In Western and Central Europe, trends of increasing numbers of people living with HIV in this key population at higher risk are evident in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

HIV infection trends in the region are showing significant racial, ethnic and socioeconomic disparities. For instance, in the United States, African-Americans have a 1 in 22 lifetime risk of becoming HIV-positive, compared with 1 in 170 for white populations.