Brazil sees rise in HIV cases, but lowest mortality since 2013
In 2023, Brazil recorded a 4.5 percent growth in the number of HIV cases compared to 2022. In the same time frame, however, the mortality rate fell to 3.9 deaths, the lowest in the last ten years, as per official data released Thursday (Dec. 12).
A total of 38 thousand cases of the disease were recorded last year. The majority were registered among men—around 27 thousand. In terms of age, the most cases were registered among people aged from 25 to 29. AIDS-related deaths totaled 10,338 in 2023, the lowest since 2013.
The increase in the number of registered cases, the Ministry of Health reported, is related to the expansion of the supply of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), since testing is required for anyone interested in taking it. As a result, more people infected with HIV were detected and immediately included in antiretroviral therapy.
“The challenge now is to re-engage people who stopped treatment or were neglected—many of them during the last government—as well as to make treatment available to all newly diagnosed people, so they can have a higher quality of life,” the ministry says in a statement.
In 2023, Brazil had 109 thousand PrEP users, compared to 50.7 thousand in 2022. Prophylaxis is distributed free of charge by the country’s national health care system, SUS, and is one of the main strategies for preventing HIV infection.
The surge in diagnoses has taken Brazil yet another step closer to eliminating AIDS as a public health problem by 2030—a commitment made to the United Nations. In 2023, 96 percent of HIV-infected people who had been unaware of their condition were diagnosed.
The UN target calls for 95 percent of people living with HIV to be diagnosed; 95 percent of them to be on antiretroviral treatment; and 95 percent of the group on treatment to have non-transmissible HIV. As it stands today, Brazil's percentages for these requirements are 96 percent, 82 percent, and 95 percent, respectively, according to the ministry.
