No 37/38 - 2026

HIV in Denmark 2025

In 2025, 201 persons with HIV were notified, of whom 142 were men and 59 women, including three trans women. The median age at notification was 42 years among men and 41 years among women.

However, the total number of notifications does not describe how many were diagnosed with HIV for the first time. An increasing proportion of the persons notified with HIV in Denmark are already living with the diagnosis when they arrive in the country. In 2025, this applied to 107 persons (53%), who had previously been diagnosed with HIV abroad. Among these, 40 persons were from Ukraine, which continues to reflect migration in recent years as a result of the war. The remaining 94 persons (47%) were diagnosed with HIV for the first time in 2025.

There were no children notified in 2025 as having been infected or born with HIV in Denmark, which underlines the continued success of prevention of mother-to-child transmission through screening during pregnancy and effective treatment of pregnant women with HIV. This development was further underlined when, in 2025, Denmark was recognised by WHO as the first country in the EU to have eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

There was only one person notified as having been infected through intravenous drug use in Denmark. This bears witness to a continued effective prevention strategy among intravenous drug users.

Who was diagnosed with HIV in 2025?

Among the 94 persons who were diagnosed with HIV for the first time, 72 were men and 22 women. Just under half were born in Denmark, while the other half were born abroad. Among those born abroad were persons who were infected before arrival in Denmark but were only detected and diagnosed in Denmark, persons infected after arrival, as well as a small number of tourists and persons without legal residence.

There were 31 men who have sex with men (MSM), while 51 persons were infected heterosexually. Among MSM, two thirds were infected in Denmark, which means that MSM continue to be the group in which the majority of domestic HIV transmission occurs.

By contrast, those infected heterosexually constituted a much more diverse group. There were 32 men and 19 women, including one trans woman, who were notified as heterosexually infected.
Some were both born and infected in Denmark, others were infected while travelling abroad, and a significant proportion were infected before arrival in Denmark. Among those born in Denmark who were infected abroad, Thailand was the most frequently stated country of infection. For a more detailed description of mode of transmission and country of infection, please see the annual report.

When considering the possibilities for prevention, it is relevant to distinguish between persons who were infected before and after arrival in Denmark. In total, 61 of the 94 newly diagnosed persons were either born in Denmark or infected after arrival in Denmark. These cases represent the group in which Danish prevention efforts could potentially have prevented the infection. The remaining 33 persons were infected before arrival in Denmark and therefore could not have been reached by Danish prevention efforts.

This distinction is important when assessing developments in the HIV epidemic. Surveillance shows that a significant proportion of the persons who are diagnosed with HIV in Denmark were already infected before they came to the country. To this must be added the 107 persons whose infections likewise could not have been prevented in Denmark.

Where is the potential for prevention today?

Over the past two decades, Denmark has experienced a marked decrease in the number of new HIV diagnoses. This development is not due to one single intervention, but to a combination of frequent testing, early treatment and targeted prevention among persons at greatest risk of HIV.

Particularly among MSM, the development has been substantial. Today, persons at high risk are offered PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, preventive HIV treatment), which, when used correctly, provides a very high level of protection against HIV. At the same time, MSM are generally tested more frequently than previously, and persons with HIV begin treatment immediately after diagnosis.

When HIV is well treated, the virus cannot be transmitted (Treatment as Prevention, TasP, or U=U – Undetectable = Untransmittable).

Together, these interventions have fundamentally changed the HIV epidemic in Denmark. However, this does not mean that prevention work is complete. On the contrary, surveillance shows that the persons who continue to be diagnosed with HIV constitute an increasingly diverse group. Several different risk factors, routes of transmission and very different pathways to diagnosis make it difficult to make general statements about prevention. Therefore, there is no longer one obvious prevention intervention that alone can further reduce the number of new cases. Although the number of new HIV diagnoses among MSM has fallen considerably in recent years, the group continues to account for one third of those newly diagnosed. It therefore remains important that all MSM without known HIV infection are tested at least once a year. Persons with an active sex life and changing partners should be tested more frequently, for example every three months, and offered PrEP if they meet the criteria.

Early testing of persons from countries with a high prevalence of HIV

The heterosexual group is, as mentioned, much more heterogeneous.

A significant proportion of those newly diagnosed who were infected heterosexually were infected before arrival in Denmark. These cases could not have been prevented through Danish prevention efforts, but could possibly have been diagnosed earlier.

Here, the most important intervention continues to be early HIV testing after arrival in Denmark.

The Danish Health Authority’s guidelines recommend that persons from areas with a high prevalence of HIV be offered an HIV test at their first contact with the healthcare system. Early diagnosis significantly improves the prognosis and at the same time reduces the risk of further transmission.

As HIV has become rarer, the risk has become that the disease is simply not considered. For many persons, the diagnosis is only made after prolonged contact with the healthcare system, often in connection with so-called indicator diseases such as hepatitis, certain forms of pneumonia, tuberculosis or other infections, where HIV should be included in the differential diagnosis.

The greatest challenge is therefore not necessarily to identify new risk groups, but to continue to remember HIV as a possible diagnosis.

Stronger HIV surveillance

From 2025, national HIV surveillance has been strengthened. By combining data from the Danish Microbiology Database (MiBa) with information from the laboratory database bank, SSI can now monitor HIV testing activity in far greater detail than has been done previously. This makes it possible to describe how many people are tested, how often testing is carried out and, in the longer term, to estimate far more precisely the number of persons living with HIV in Denmark. This development represents an important advance for national surveillance. However, laboratory data cannot stand alone. They show that a person has been tested or diagnosed, but not how the person was infected, where the infection took place, or which risk factors were present.

It is precisely this information that is collected through the mandatory HIV notifications.

As the number of new HIV diagnoses becomes ever lower, while at the same time the group of persons with HIV becomes more diverse and complex, this epidemiological information becomes even more important. It makes it possible to detect changes in transmission patterns, identify new risk groups and target prevention efforts where the need is greatest.

Each individual notification therefore provides knowledge that cannot be replaced by laboratory data alone.

In 2025, 126 reminders regarding missing HIV notifications were sent out.

The vast majority subsequently resulted in a notification, demonstrating strong support for the surveillance system among the treating departments. It is crucial that this high quality is maintained.

SSI would therefore like to thank the clinical departments and general practitioners for their considerable efforts with the notifications and, at the same time, encourage practitioners to continue to submit clinical notifications as quickly as possible after diagnosis. This applies to all persons living with HIV who come into contact with the Danish healthcare system, including tourists, refugees and other newly arrived persons, regardless of whether they are well treated or have permanent residence in Denmark.

HIV resistance

In 2025, resistance and subtype determination were performed in 78 of 94 persons with newly diagnosed HIV. In 12 (15.4%), resistance to at least one class of HIV medicines was detected, which is at the same level as in previous years. NNRTI resistance was most frequent (7.9%), while INSTI resistance remained rare and was found in only one person. There was no significant difference in resistance between persons infected in Denmark and abroad. Among persons infected in Denmark, HIV-1 subtype B was most frequent, while CRF01_AE was most frequent among newly diagnosed persons infected abroad.

Continued surveillance of HIV resistance is important, particularly regarding the increased use of integrase inhibitors for treatment and prevention. Samples from newly diagnosed HIV-1 patients with at least 1,000 virus copies/mL should therefore be submitted to SSI before the start of treatment (order code R-2060).

Denmark in a European perspective

Developments in Denmark reflect in many ways the developments seen in the rest of Europe, but there are also significant differences.

According to ECDC, just over 24,000 HIV cases were notified in the EU/EEA in 2024, corresponding to 5.3 cases per 100,000 population. At the same time, almost half of all persons continued to be diagnosed late, and more than half of the persons for whom country of origin was known were born outside the country in which the diagnosis was made. MSM continued to constitute the largest transmission group, but heterosexual transmission accounts for an increasing proportion of notified cases, particularly among persons born outside the reporting country.
Denmark differs by continuing to have a very low number of newly diagnosed HIV cases (1.6 cases per 100,000) and by the fact that the occurrence among MSM has fallen markedly over a number of years.

By contrast, Denmark shares the challenge with the rest of Europe when it comes to persons diagnosed late. Around half of those newly diagnosed in both Denmark and the EU/EEA continue to be diagnosed late in the course of the disease. This underlines that there continues to be a need to increase testing among persons from countries with a high prevalence of HIV, and among persons who may not consider themselves to be at risk but who have nevertheless been exposed to HIV. This applies, for example, to persons who have sex while travelling, including immigrants who are resident in Denmark but who have sex during visits to their country of origin, and persons with many partners.

HIV globally

Worldwide, around 40 million people live with HIV. In recent decades, the number of new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths has been declining as a result of a massive global effort involving testing, antiretroviral treatment and prevention.

However, developments are unevenly distributed. Many countries continue to have a high prevalence of HIV, and in several regions many persons continue to be diagnosed late or have limited access to treatment. Therefore, persons who move to Denmark from areas with a high prevalence of HIV will continue to constitute an important group in need of early testing and rapid access to treatment. On 22–23 June this year, the UN General Assembly held a high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS and subsequently published a global AIDS strategy for 2026–2031. The strategy aims to support the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 through strengthened national ownership, sustainable financing, integration of the HIV response into individual countries’ health systems, as well as a continued strong focus on equality, human rights and combating stigma. The strategy maintains the global 95-95-95 targets and underlines the importance of evidence-based prevention, including PrEP, as well as a central role for civil society and local communities in the global HIV response.

Conclusion

Developments in Denmark show that the national efforts against HIV are working.
The number of persons diagnosed with HIV for the first time remains low, and among MSM the prevalence has fallen markedly in recent years. Effective treatment also means that persons with well-treated HIV do not transmit the infection, and PrEP has fundamentally changed the possibilities for prevention.

At the same time, surveillance shows that the remaining cases constitute an increasingly heterogeneous group. There is no longer one single target group or one single prevention intervention that alone can further reduce the number of new HIV diagnoses. Instead, continued efforts must be based on targeted testing, rapid initiation of treatment and continued high awareness of HIV among persons with relevant risk factors or clinical indicators.

The strengthened national surveillance linking MiBa and the laboratory database bank provides new opportunities to monitor HIV testing activity and, in future, to describe more precisely the number of persons living with HIV in Denmark. But laboratory data cannot stand alone. Clinical notifications remain the only source of information on mode of transmission, country of infection and other epidemiological risk factors that make it possible to understand developments and target prevention.

Therefore, continued national surveillance is a shared responsibility.
In connection with the publication of EPI-NEWS, the annual report for the Danish HIV cohort, 2025, is also published.

(J. Fonager, R. Datcu, Virology and Microbiological Preparedness, C. Eves, M. Wessman, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Prevention)