Situation in Switzerland

The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) publishes the number of new HIV diagnoses from the previous year in the final quarter of each year. The following figures are taken from the FOPH’s 2024 Annual Report, dated 27 October 2025.

A total of 318 new HIV cases were reported in Switzerland and Liechtenstein for the year 2024, slightly fewer than in the previous year (357). These figures are below pre-pandemic levels, which can be attributed, on the one hand, to a sustained ‘HIV cascade’ – whereby almost all people living with HIV are aware of their infection and receive rapid, effective treatment, meaning they can no longer transmit the virus – and, on the other hand, to the increased use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a preventive antiretroviral treatment.

The FOPH’s analysis shows that gay men and other men who have sex with men are proportionally the most affected by HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). 50.8 per cent of reported cases with a known route of transmission involved gay men and other men who have sex with men. One case was reported in a transgender person. As in previous years, the most common route of transmission among men was sex with other men, whilst for women it was heterosexual contact. Infections linked to injecting drug use played only a minor role in 2024, as in previous years.

In the 1990s, the average was 1,300 cases per year. A key factor behind this decline is a sustainable HIV cascade, in which almost all people living with HIV are aware of their status and receive prompt, effective treatment, meaning they no longer pass the virus on. It is also the result of an annual STI testing campaign run by Aids-Hilfe Schweiz, which was first carried out in May 2017 and has been repeated annually ever since. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has also contributed to the decline. By December 2024, at least 6,968 MSM (who are at increased risk of HIV infection) had protected themselves against HIV using PrEP.

Based on statistical projections, which take into account that AIDS cases are sometimes reported up to several years after diagnosis, the FOPH assumes that the number of new AIDS cases has stabilized at about 60 to 80 cases per year. In virtually all AIDS cases in Switzerland, the HIV diagnosis occurs less than a year before the illness – meaning that treatment could not be started in good time to prevent the emergence of AIDS. But even for these people, there is a good chance that their health will improve again if HIV therapy is started immediately.

According to the Federal Statistical Office, 5,879 people died of AIDS in Switzerland between 1985 and 2021, 75% of whom were men. 40.4% of those who died were younger than 35 years old. Since 2008, fewer than 50 people have died of AIDS in Switzerland each year.

In Switzerland, the incidence of HIV varies greatly depending on the population group. There are key groups – with some people in multiple groups – in which HIV is more prevalent. The following groups of people are particularly affected by HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (FOPH 2026):

• Gay, bisexual, queer and other men who have sex with men (MSM)
• People from countries with an increased prevalence of sexually transmitted pathogens
• People in prison
• People living with HIV, the hepatitis B or hepatitis C virus and/or other STIs and their sexual contacts
• People who inject, inhale or sniff drugs
• People who offer sexual services for money
• People who pay for sex in Switzerland or abroad
• Trans people

The global situation

The following information is based on data from UNAIDS (Fact Sheet and Update 2025) and the WHO (Report 2024), and is derived from country-reported figures, modelling and estimates.

In 2025, around 1.2 million people worldwide became infected with HIV. 570,000 people died of AIDS – even though these deaths could now be prevented thanks to antiviral medicines.