HIV infection with late diagnosis
Published
1. Main facts and figures
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in the 3 years to December 2022, 43.3% of all 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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52.9% of black African people were diagnosed at a late stage of infection – higher than the overall average for England
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40.1% of white people were diagnosed at a late state of infection, up from 36.4% in the 3 years to December 2011
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the percentage of black African people who were diagnosed at a late stage of infection has decreased since 2011, but remains consistently higher than the percentage for white people
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 of blood within 91 days of diagnosis. 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.
Not included in the data
Newly-diagnosed patients were not included if their CD4 count was not recorded within 91 days, or they had a previous diagnosis of HIV abroad.
Patients were also not included if they had a CD4 count below 350 cells per cubic millimetre but had evidence of recent infection. This was either a negative HIV test within the 24 months before their diagnosis, or a positive Recent Infection Testing Algorithm result. This means the data may 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
- black ‘other’
- 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 2022, ethnicity was known for 90.6% of people newly diagnosed with HIV. Patients with unknown ethnicity have been included in the overall total.
Methodology
Read the detailed methodology document for the data on this page.
The data is an average for 3 years, for example from January 2020 to December 2022. 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
Download the data for:
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confidence intervals for each ethnic group – find out how we use confidence intervals to find out how reliable estimates are
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unrounded estimates
3. By ethnicity
| 2011 to 2013 | 2014 to 2016 | 2017 to 2019 | 2020 to 2022 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethnicity | 2011 to 2013 New diagnoses | 2011 to 2013 % late-stage | 2014 to 2016 New diagnoses | 2014 to 2016 % late-stage | 2017 to 2019 New diagnoses | 2017 to 2019 % late-stage | 2020 to 2022 New diagnoses | 2020 to 2022 % late-stage |
| All | 13,307 | 40.8 | 10,824 | 35.2 | 6,632 | 41.4 | 5,447 | 43.3 |
| Asian | 725 | 45.1 | 640 | 41.4 | 417 | 41.2 | 445 | 45.8 |
| Black | ||||||||
| Black African | 3,364 | 59.2 | 2,000 | 55.8 | 1,171 | 57.8 | 1,028 | 52.9 |
| Black Caribbean | 431 | 44.3 | 308 | 37.0 | 198 | 43.4 | 121 | 36.4 |
| Black other | 293 | 45.7 | 220 | 37.7 | 133 | 42.1 | 143 | 42.0 |
| White | 7,514 | 32.3 | 6,525 | 28.5 | 3,784 | 38.1 | 2,486 | 40.1 |
| Other including Mixed | 185 | 42.2 | 328 | 36.9 | 327 | 36.7 | 712 | 44.1 |
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, geography_code, gender, age, value, value_type, denominator, numerator, upper_95_c_i, lower_95_c_i