Sweden reached the 95-95-95 UNAIDS and WHO targets for the HIV epidemic, making it the first country in the world to achieve these targets, and even if the targets were supposed to be reached by 2025. This means that in Sweden, 95% of all people living with HIV have been diagnosed, 95% of them are receiving treatment, and 95% of those treated have undetectable viral load.
This is according to a study – “Sweden surpasses the UNAIDS 95-95-95 target: estimating HIV-1 incidence, 2003 to 2022” by Erik Lundgren, Macauley Locke, Ethan Romero-Severson, et al – that was published in Eurosurveillance.
Sweden’s figures are supposedly even better since 96% have been diagnosed, 99% are on treatment, and 98% have undetectable virus levels.
The study is based on data from the national HIV cohort established in 2003, with over 99% of all people diagnosed with HIV in Sweden included in this cohort. The data was analyzed using bioinformatics methods in collaboration with researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US.
Stressing that the ambitious goals are achievable, the researchers stated that “the results point to successful prevention and diagnostic efforts, especially in people who inject drugs (PWID) and in men who have sex with men (MSM)… and support the continuation of existing targeted preventive measures such as needle exchange programs and PrEP, which are also co-organized with access to testing.”
