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Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) (late diagnoses count)

Last updated on Wednesday, 22 July 2026 at 12:39pm

Summary

Topic
HIV
Category
API name
HIV_cases_lateDiagnosesCount

Rationale

HIV is a lifelong infection. It can be fatal if people are not diagnosed and treated effectively.

More than 120,000 people are living with HIV in England.

The government has set an ambition to end HIV transmission by 2030 (HIV Action Plan for England, 2025 to 2030) and trends in HIV diagnoses data are key in tracking progress towards this aim.

The number and proportion of people diagnosed late helps to show how well HIV testing programmes are working. It shows whether people have the chance to be diagnosed at an earlier stage.

People diagnosed late have been living with HIV for at least 3 to 5 years and have a higher risk of early death. They may also pass HIV on to sexual partners if they have sex without condoms or PrEP.

Definition

New HIV diagnoses means the number of HIV diagnoses reported to the UK Health Security Agency.

Late HIV diagnoses means the number of people diagnosed with a CD4 count under 350 cells within 91 days of diagnosis. This does not include people with evidence of recently acquired infection.

Methodology

More information on methods is available in the quality and methodology information for the UK HIV data release on GOV.UK.

Caveats

People can live with HIV for around 8 to 10 years before symptoms appear. This means trends in new HIV diagnoses do not always show trends in HIV incidence. Trends in new HIV diagnosis can also be affected by:

  • HIV testing activity
  • migration
  • reporting

Data reports can be missing important demographic and clinical information.

CD4 counts can fall for a short time after a person acquires HIV. This means some people who recently acquired HIV may be incorrectly recorded as a late diagnosis.

This risk is reduced by excluding people with evidence of:

  • a recent HIV test
  • laboratory evidence of recently acquired HIV infection

Data reports can be missing important demographic and clinical information.