HIV infection with late diagnosis
Published
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1. Main facts and figures
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in the 3 years to December 2019, an average of 43.1% of people in England aged 15 and over who were newly diagnosed with HIV were diagnosed at a late stage of infection
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53.1% of Black African people were diagnosed at a late stage of infection, higher than the overall average for England
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40.5% of White people were diagnosed at a late state of infection, increasing from 38.6% in 2011, yet remaining lower than the English average
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the percentage of Black African people who were diagnosed at a late stage of infection went down consistently between 2011 and 2019, yet was consistently higher than people in the White, Asian and Other (including Mixed) ethnic groups
2. Things you need to know
What the data measures
The data shows the percentage of HIV diagnoses made at a late stage of infection for people aged 15 and over living in England.
A diagnosis is ‘late-stage’ if a patient has a CD4 count of fewer than 350 cells per cubic millimetre (mm3) of blood. CD4 is a type of white blood cell needed for a healthy immune system. If untreated, HIV infection will reduce the number of CD4 cells over time.
The data only includes patients with CD4 cell counts available within 91 days of diagnosis.
Percentages are rounded to 1 decimal place, but have been worked out with unrounded figures.
Not included in the data
Newly-diagnosed patients were not included if either:
- their CD4 count was not recorded within 91 days (around 15% of cases)
- their home address was not recorded
The data may therefore not be representative of all newly-diagnosed patients.
The ethnic groups used in the data
Estimates are shown for the following 6 ethnic groups:
- Asian
- Black African
- Black Caribbean
- Any other Black
- White
- Other ethnic groups (including Mixed ethnicities)
This is because the number of patients was too small to make any reliable conclusions about any of the 18 ethnic groups.
For the 3 years to December 2019, ethnicity was known for 93% of people newly diagnosed with HIV.
Methodology
Read the detailed methodology document for the data on this page.
The data is an average for 3 years, for example from January 2016 to December 2019. This is to make sure there are enough people to be able to make reliable generalisations.
You can read more about combining multiple years of data and some of the issues involved.
In the data file
See Download the data for:
- confidence intervals for each ethnic group – find out how we use confidence intervals to determine how reliable estimates are
- unrounded estimates
3. By ethnicity
| 2011 - 13 | 2014 - 16 | 2017 - 19 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethnicity | 2011 - 13 New diagnoses | 2011 - 13 % late-stage | 2014 - 16 New diagnoses | 2014 - 16 % late-stage | 2017 - 19 New diagnoses | 2017 - 19 % late-stage |
| All | 14,436 | 45.7 | 12,942 | 40.3 | 8,979 | 43.1 |
| Asian | 795 | 48.4 | 780 | 47.6 | 585 | 44.3 |
| Black | ||||||
| Black African | 3,715 | 61.2 | 2,475 | 56.1 | 1,700 | 53.1 |
| Black Caribbean | 440 | 49.3 | 350 | 45.6 | 220 | 48.2 |
| Black other | 315 | 51.7 | 250 | 44.4 | 175 | 48.3 |
| White | 8,095 | 38.6 | 7,595 | 35.0 | 4,795 | 40.5 |
| Other including Mixed | 885 | 40.2 | 1,055 | 34.6 | 880 | 36.5 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity’ (CSV)
4. Data sources
Source
Public Health Outcomes Framework: HIV
Type of data
Administrative data
Type of statistic
Official statistics
Publisher
The UK Health Security Agency
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
The HIV and AIDS Reporting System (HARS) dataset is designed to:
- increase the efficiency of HIV surveillance
- raise standards on outputs
- produce quality of care indicators
- help and support commissioning services
A late HIV diagnosis is defined as having a CD4 count <350 cells within 91 days of diagnosis. They are therefore at a higher risk of premature death and of transmitting the virus to their sexual partners. For this reason, reducing late HIV diagnosis is a clinical and public health priority.
The HARS dataset was developed by UK Health Security (UKHSA) and its predecessors with the Department of Health and the Clinical Reference Group for HIV.
5. Download the data
This file contains the following: Measure, Ethnicity, Ethnicity_type, Time, Time_type, Geography, Geography_type, Gender, Age, Value, Value_type, Denominator, Numerator, Lower 95% C.I, Upper 95% C.I