Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela shared on Tuesday that over the past 18 months, 153 people have been diagnosed with HIV or AIDS. Positively, the numbers reveal that no new diagnoses have been made since April of this year.
The Minister for Health and Active Ageing was requested by PN MP Ian Vassallo to disclose how many people in the Maltese islands have been diagnosed with either HIV or AIDS since January 2024 and the day this parliamentary question is answered, i.e., Tuesday, 24 June.
The figures tabled in Parliament this afternoon show how many of these diagnoses were given month-by-month.
Throughout the entirety of 2024, a total of 122 diagnoses of either HIV or AIDS were made.
The first six months of 2025 have resulted in 31 diagnoses - a stark improvement on the first half of 2024, which registered 74 such diagnoses.
While no-one was diagnosed with either immunodeficiency disease in May or June of 2025 - naturally, the lowest on record since 2024 began - the most HIV/AIDS diagnoses given in a single month was 15.
15 HIV/AIDS diagnoses were recorded in the respective months of February 2024, March 2024, and July 2024.
For 2025, 10 people were told to have either HIV or AIDS this January, followed by half that amount (5) in February, nine in March, and another seven people in April.
1,379 other STI diagnoses given in same timeframe
Responding to another PQ put forward by the PN's Ian Vassallo, Health Minister Abela shared that within the same timeframe, i.e., from January 2024 till now, a total of 1,379 sexually transmitted infections (STIs) other than HIV/AIDS were diagnosed.
This data illustrates that throughout 2024, 963 sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) other than HIV/AIDS were identified by health professionals.
416 such STDs were diagnosed in the first half of 2025. This highlights a significant increase from the first half of last year, when 307 such STDs were pinpointed.
The second half of last year resulted in a spike of STI diagnoses. With 111 being diagnosed last July, followed by another 116 last August, 117 in September, 115 in October, 105 last November, and 92 in December, a grand total of 656 STIs not identified as HIV/AIDS were noticed in patients.
June 2025, although not yet concluded, may result in the lowest number of such diagnoses in the past 18 months. So far, 31 such diagnoses have been made this month; one would have to go back to May 2024 to find the next lowest total - 38 diagnoses.
This respective PQ did not divulge into the exact STIs/STDs circling around during this period.