São Paulo registers a 78% drop in deaths caused by AIDS since 1995

In times of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to remember that other diseases are still active and need attention to be controlled. This is the case of Aids, which reached the lowest mortality rate in the State of São Paulo in almost three decades.

According to the Seade Foundation (State Data Analysis System), the region had a 78% drop in the number of deaths caused by the disease since the peak registered in 1995. The survey was released this Thursday, December 1, which also it’s World AIDS Day.

At its peak, 7,739 deaths were recorded in the state, with 5,850 men and 1,889 women. In 2021, the last year analyzed, there were 1,719 deaths, including 1,237 male patients and 482 female patients. Thus, in 1995, there were 22.9 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants against 3.8 in 2021.

The data also showed a difference in age group. In 1995, 90% of victims were under 44 years old. Last year, 60% of the cases corresponded to patients over 45 years old.

The life expectancy of AIDS patients has also increased between genders: 49 years for women and 47 for men. According to the entity, these numbers reflect the evolution of treatments – pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP and PEP) – and the introduction of new procedures, which contributed to the increased survival of affected individuals.

“The advances in treatments are a reason to celebrate this World AIDS Day, but also bring an important alert to the need to raise awareness about the importance of using preventive methods, such as condoms, among other combined prevention methods. Despite the treatments being more effective, we cannot leave prevention aside”, says the Coordinator of the STD/AIDS Reference and Training Center in São Paulo, Alexandre Gonçalves.

Learn more: HIV: get your questions answered about diagnostic tests

In the city of São Paulo, for the fifth consecutive year, there was a drop in the number of new infected people. In 2021, there were 2,351 new cases of HIV against 3,761 records in 2016. The information was presented in the 2021 Epidemiological Bulletin, released by the Coordination of Sexually Transmitted Infections (IST)/AIDS, of the Municipal Health Secretariat (SMS).

AIDS numbers in Brazil

Nationally, 960,000 people are living with HIV in Brazil, estimates the Ministry of Health. Last year, 40,800 new cases of HIV and 35,200 cases of AIDS were detected in the country. About 727,000 people are undergoing treatment. The bulletin reveals that, currently, cases are concentrated in individuals aged 25 to 29 years, 51.7% male and 47.4% female.

In this trend, the HIV detection rate in children under five years old, due to vertical transmission (from mother to child), had a reduction of 66% in the last decade. In 2011, there were 3.4 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, while in 2021 there were 1.2 cases per 100,000 citizens. On the other hand, cases in pregnant women grew by 35% in the same period.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 4 million people have the virus and have not yet been diagnosed. This portion represents more than 10% of the 38 million HIV-positive patients around the world. For this reason, the organization has been calling on global authorities to commit to the goal of controlling the disease in the world by 2030.

Read more: How to prevent and what are the AIDS control tests