[Epidemiology of HIV and AIDS infection in Navarra]

The incidence of AIDS has been declining in the European Union since 1996 as a result, at least in part, of the use of more efficient treatments for HIV infection. The same tendency can be observed in Navarra, where the average has dropped from 70 annual cases in the first five years of the 1990s to 30 cases in the year 1999. In Navarra, the most frequent category of transmission was the consumption of intravenous drugs, a practice referred to by 72% of those diagnosed with AIDS between 1985 and 1999. 21% were attributed to sexual transmission (7% to homosexual practices and 14% to heterosexual), 2.5% to other mechanisms (mother-child, hemoderivates, etc.) and in the remaining 4.6% information was unavailable on the probable mechanism of transmission. With respect to the incidence of HIV infection, between 1985 and December 1999, 2,379 cases were diagnosed in Navarra. The annual number of new diagnoses of HIV infection showed two maximum peaks in the years 1987 and 1991, with over 200 annual cases. A progressive decline can be observed from 1993 onwards, falling to 40 cases in 1999. The figure of over 2,000 cases of HIV infection contrasts with the 672 cases of AIDS registered in this autonomous community up until the year 2000, and resituates the epidemic in more certain terms. Although the cases of AIDS and HIV have fallen in Navarra in recent years, the data from the microbiology laboratories and the hospital services that treat persons with HIV infection indicate that a considerable number of new cases of infection will continue to occur, which justifies the need for maintaining the prevention programs.