The Directorate of Health
1 December – World AIDS Day: Reducing Stigma and Ensuring Early Diagnosis
1st December 2025
World AIDS Day is marked annually on 1 December. On this occasion, we remind everyone that HIV and AIDS remain urgent public health concerns affecting the health and wellbeing of millions of people worldwide.
Image: ECDC
The day also aims to show solidarity with people living with HIV. In 2024, an estimated 40 million people globally were living with HIV.
HIV infection is preventable, and appropriate treatment ensures a long life. HIV is now a chronic condition, and individuals who receive the right treatment can live long and healthy lives. HIV treatment can reduce the viral load to undetectable levels, which also prevents transmission to others.
Focus for 2025
This year, the World Health Organization (WHO) emphasizes the importance of continuity in healthcare services for people living with HIV, including avoiding interruptions in treatment. Continuity of care ensures that a person’s viral load remains undetectable, which prevents onward transmission. WHO encourages continued political leadership, international cooperation, and a human-rights–based approach to eliminate AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) stresses the need to combat stigma, eliminate the testing gap, and ensure good healthcare throughout life. Late diagnosis is one of the biggest challenges in Europe; when the virus has already severely affected the immune system or there are signs of AIDS. Stigma around the disease often prevents individuals from getting tested and seeking healthcare. Late diagnosis results in delayed access to essential treatment and increases the risk of developing AIDS. In total, approximately 106,000 HIV cases were reported in the WHO European Region in 2024. Data from Europe (ECDC and WHO) for 2024 show that around 50% of people were diagnosed late.
Testing
Access to HIV testing in Iceland is good; the test is simple and free of charge. Testing is available at primary healthcare centres across the country, as well as at the infectious diseases outpatient clinic and the sexually transmitted infections clinic at Landspítali. All individuals are encouraged to take an HIV test at least once in their lifetime and more often if needed, for example when entering a new sexual partnership or for those belonging to higher-risk groups. In Iceland, screening for HIV is carried out as part of the medical examination for immigrants and refugees, but not all countries have such screening.
In addition to regular HIV testing, condoms and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) can help prevent new infections. HIV testing and treatment are provided in full confidentiality in accordance with strict healthcare privacy regulations.
In 2024, 40 individuals were diagnosed with HIV in Iceland. Of these, 21 were men (53%) and 19 were women. Twenty-five individuals (63%) had a known diagnosis that had been made previously abroad, and 15 individuals were newly diagnosed in Iceland.
Most infections, 23 individuals (58%), were acquired through heterosexual contact. Eleven men (28%) were infected through sex with men, and six individuals had other/ unknown routes of transmission. Four individuals were diagnosed with AIDS in Iceland in 2024, one woman and three men, but no AIDS-related deaths occurred in Iceland during the year.
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Treatment
Effective HIV medicines are available, and in Iceland treatment is free of charge and accessible to all, meaning that no one should progress to AIDS. This does not apply in all countries, as limited access to treatment and interruptions in care may occur under various circumstances.
We encourage everyone to get tested for HIV, challenge stigma, and support people living with HIV
Further information about HIV and HIV testing can be found on the Directorate of Health’s and Landspítali Hospital’s websites.
The Chief Epidemiologist