Until December 2000 my Department published statistics on the incidence of HIV in Ireland based on data provided by the virus reference laboratory. Since that date the National Disease Surveillance Centre, NDSC, has taken over responsibility for publishing these statistics. The main rationale for this is that the NDSC will have the epidemiological expertise to interpret and report on data as it has employed a surveillance scientist for this purpose. HIV statistics will be published twice yearly by the NDSC, as was previously the case when my Department reported the figures.
Ireland provides its statistics on HIV to a European HIV reporting system, based in Paris. These statistics are accessible through the website, www.ceses.org. Statistics from other European countries are also available on this website.
In Ireland data has been broken down and reported as cases in the eastern region and cases in the rest of the country. The reason for this is because in some areas incidence of HIV is quite low, sometimes with just one case being reported in any given reporting period. In order to protect the anonymity of those with HIV a decision was made, with the approval of the National AIDS Strategy Committee, which is chaired by my colleague, Minister of State, Deputy Moffatt, to report in this manner. Latest statistics show that from July to December 2000, 78% of HIV antibody positive cases occurred in the Eastern Regional Health Authority area.
