According to the Croatian Public Health Institute, about 80 new cases of HIV and AIDS have been recorded in Croatia this year, showing a continuation of a mild increase in incidence, but with 21 ill per million inhabitants, Croatia remains among the countries with a low incidence of HIV infection.
In recent years, about 90 infections have been diagnosed annually on average. The first case of HIV/AIDS in Croatia was recorded in 1985. Since then and until the end of 2015, there were 1,321 cases of infection, of which 458 turned into AIDS. There were also 201 deaths of AIDS-related causes.
Most were infected through sexual intercourse and in recent years there has been a marked increase in newly-diagnosed cases among homosexual and bisexual men, and the situation is similar in other European Union countries.
In the EU, 30,000 new HIV infections are recorded annually. According to the World Health Organisation, 36.7 million in the world lived with HIV in 2015, of whom 2.1 million were new cases, and 1.1 million peopled died of AIDS-related causes.