A third of HIV sufferers in Germany do not know they are infected with the disease, with doctors warning that the number of new infections remains high, ahead of World Aids Day on Sunday.
According to figures from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), a government organization responsible for disease control and prevention, there were 78,000 people living with the virus in Germany at the end of 2012. And 3,400 of these contracted the disease last year – 100 more new infections than in 2011.
This year the number of new infections remains roughly unchanged and a major reason for the lack of improvement is that the disease often goes undiagnosed. Thirty percent of HIV sufferers do not know they are infected.
“We estimate that around 30 percent of all people with HIV in Germany still haven’t been diagnosed,” said Professor Georg Behrens, president of the German Aids Society and doctor at the immunology and rheumatology clinic of Hannover’s medical university.
The disease can go unnoticed for years because often there are no obvious symptoms before the disease progresses to AIDS. In many cases the body’s defence mechanisms keep the virus in check - and HIV-sufferers unknowingly spread the disease to other sexual partners.
People are most likely to transmit the disease soon after they have contracted it themselves because the concentration of the virus in their body is highest in the early stages of the illness…..(more)
Read the whole story: http://www.thelocal.de/20131129/a-third-of-hiv-cases-in-germany-are-not-diagnosed
Source: The Local - DPA