A Snapshot of the HIV Epidemic in France

Monitoring the HIV epidemic and targeting prevention programs appropriately depends, in part, on knowing the incidence of infection across various segments of the population. In this report, investigators describe the incidence of HIV infection in France from 2003 through 2008. Incidence rates were estimated using the number of new diagnoses of infection, along with results from an enzyme immunoassay that can distinguish recent infection (within the past 180 days) from nonrecent infection.

Investigators estimated that, from 2003 through 2008, there were a total of 42,330 new diagnoses of HIV infection in France. Of these diagnoses, 25% represented recent infections, and this proportion remained stable from year to year. Overall, the number o…