Number of Wisconsin Residents Diagnosed with HIV Hits Decade-Long High in 2022

Wednesday, December 6th, 2023 -- 10:01 AM

(Margaret Faust, Wisconsin Public Radio) The number of Wisconsin residents newly diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus hit a decade-long high in 2022.

According to Margaret Faust with Wisconsin Public Radio, on World AIDS Day on Friday, health officials said people with the disease are living longer as medical treatment has improved, but said the number of new diagnoses has risen over the last two years.

The theme for the 35th annual day of awareness was "Remember and Commit." Margaret Lidstone, the chief development officer at Vivent Health, a health care organization focused on fighting HIV, said commemoration comes to mind.

"It's just so critically important to not only remember the friends, the family members, the coworkers, the neighbors, the people in our world who have succumbed to AIDS, but also it reminds us that a lot of that loss of life was not always necessary," Lidstone said.

In 2022, 289 people were newly diagnosed with HIV across the state, according to an annual report from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. A total of 7,310 people were known to be living with HIV in Wisconsin last year.

Jacob Dougherty, the HIV Prevention Unit Supervisor at DHS, said the increase in new diagnoses over the last two years comes in part because testing lagged during the COVID-19 pandemic when testing sites shut down or redirected to meet other needs.

Testing just returned to full capacity this year, Dougherty said.

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