Injection Drug Use-Related AIDS in The Netherlands, 2012

"Until 2001, AIDS cases meeting WHO criteria were registered in the national Information System on AIDS Statistics, maintained by the Health Care Inspectorate (IGZ). In 2002 this AIDS registration was replaced by the HIV/ AIDS registration of the SHM mentioned above. As the IGZ data appeared to be incomplete since 2000, the data below are based on the IGZ registration until 1999 and the SHM data from 2000 onwards. The year of AIDS diagnosis refers to the date of the first CDC-C diagnosis (classification C according to the Centres for Disease Control).
"• Up to December 2012, the cumulative total of reported AIDS diagnoses was 8,875 and 5,442 HIV infected individuals had died (Soetens et al., 2013). The annual number of new AIDS diagnoses peaked in the first half of the nineties (around 500 cases per year) and then gradually dropped, to 154 cases in 2012 (Soetens et al., 2013). The observed decrease since 1996 is related to the availability of HAART, which slowed progression from HIV to AIDS.
"• Of the 154 new AIDS diagnoses in 2012, 3 (1.9%) were among injecting drug users (table 6.2.2). In the same year, 131 AIDS patients died, among whom were 16 (12.2%) injecting drug users. Note that the data for 2012 are incomplete due to reporting delay (Soetens et al., 2013).
"• Up until December 2012, 720 registered AIDS patients (8.1% of the total AIDS diagnoses) belonged to the transmission risk group of injecting drug users. The number of diagnosed AIDS cases related to injecting drug use peaked in 1995 (74), but remained at or below 15 cases per year since 1999, with the exception of 2005 (24 cases).
"• Note that the percentage of IDUs among the total population of AIDS patients (8.1% over all years) is higher than the percentage of IDUs in the total population of HIV patients (3.6%), but that the percentage of IDUs among the AIDS deaths is even higher: 11% or over in the last decade (except for 9.4% in 2011). This indicates that the disease course in injecting drug users is less favourable than in other risk groups."