Around 40 to 50 people in Slovenia are diagnosed with the HIV virus each year

1. december 2014 ob 12.24 • Ljubljana - MMC RTV SLO

The amount of people who get tested in Slovenia is still very low and more than a half become aware of the infection at later stages, when medication cannot help as it would at the early stages of the disease. Foto: EPA

The number of people infected by the HIV virus in Slovenia is still less than one person per 1,000. However the number has been rising slowly but surely in recent years

. Around 40 to 50 people are diagnosed with the virus each year.

Some 150 to 200 people are believed to have the virus, but are unaware of their infection and are spreading it further. In the last decade some 450 people have been infected with 23 patients dying from AIDS. The amount of people who get tested in Slovenia is still very low and more than a half become aware of the infection at later stages, when medication cannot help as it would at the early stages of the disease. That’s why a quarter of newly diagnosed infections progress to AIDS. The late detection of HIV has largely decreased in the EU, while Slovenia sees a reverse trend.

People can ask to be tested for HIV at their doctor’s, at the Information Center Legebitra, anonymous testing is also possible at the Clinic of Infectious Diseases at the University Medical Centre in Ljubljana and today free and anonymous testing is also available at the National Institute of public Health on Trubarjeva street in Ljubljana.

Globally most cases of AIDS are still recorded in Sub-Saharan Africa.