Over the past four decades, slightly more than 35,000 people have been diagnosed with HIV in Poland. Experts warn, however, that a significant proportion of people living with the virus may still be unaware of their status and therefore may not be receiving treatment. Modern therapies can suppress HIV in the blood to undetectable levels, preventing sexual transmission. Despite major medical progress, HIV remains an important public-health challenge, with low awareness of the virus and the risks of infection among the key concerns.
“Between 2,000 and 3,000 people living with HIV are diagnosed every year. Of course, we have to remember that the statistics also include patients who may have been diagnosed much earlier but were not previously registered, as well as people who have moved to Poland from other countries,” Dr Iwona Cielniak, an infectious-disease specialist at the Provincial Infectious Diseases Hospital in Warsaw, told the Newseria news agency.
From 1985, when HIV testing was introduced in Poland, to 31 December 2024, HIV infection was identified in 35,175 Polish citizens and foreign nationals staying in the country, according to the latest available data from the National Institute of Public Health PZH–PIB.
The route of infection has not been identified for every registered case. Among those recorded by the end of 2024, however, at least 6,500 infections were linked to injecting drug use, around 5,500 to sexual contact between men, and approximately 2,700 to heterosexual contact.
“A very small percentage, which I consider a success for Poland, concerns children infected through vertical transmission, meaning transmission from mother to child,” Cielniak says.
Modern treatment allows people with HIV to live normal lives
Thanks to advances in medicine, people living with HIV can now lead active lives, form relationships and have healthy children.
Antiretroviral therapy can suppress viral replication to a level at which HIV is undetectable in standard blood tests.
A person living with HIV who takes treatment regularly and maintains an undetectable viral load does not sexually transmit the virus to others. This is known as the U=U principle – Undetectable = Untransmittable.
“Antiretroviral treatment makes it possible to achieve an undetectable viral load, and we can confirm this in laboratory tests. From a medical perspective, treatment also helps rebuild the immune system and can contribute to an improved quality of life,” Cielniak explains.
The effectiveness of therapy depends heavily on adherence.
“The condition for treatment to work is regularity. If someone chooses tablets, they should take them every day. If they use injections, they need to attend appointments regularly, once every two months. Interrupting therapy means the treatment will no longer be effective,” says Grzegorz Jezierski, one of the participants in the “Pozytywnie też znaczy dobrze” campaign, which aims to combat stigma, improve public awareness of HIV and support people returning to normal life after diagnosis.
HIV treatment is free in Poland
Systematic antiretroviral treatment has been available in Poland since 2001 as part of the national strategy for preventing HIV infections and combating AIDS.
It is currently implemented through a government health-policy programme providing antiretroviral treatment to people living with HIV in Poland.
According to Cielniak, HIV treatment in Poland is free and can be adapted to the individual needs and lifestyle of the patient.
In practice, treatment may involve daily oral medication or, in some cases, injectable medicines administered at specified intervals.
“The antiretroviral treatment regimen itself is free, which means it is available to every person who seeks treatment for HIV infection, even if they do not have health insurance,” she says.
“The programme also allows patients to have their immunological profile assessed, including CD4 cell counts, which show the condition of the immune system, as well as HIV viral-load testing twice a year.”
She stresses that access to treatment, diagnostics and testing remains one of the most important tools for reducing the scale of the epidemic.
“If, hypothetically, all people living with HIV were diagnosed, covered by treatment and treated effectively, we could theoretically stop the epidemic,” Jezierski says.
41 million people worldwide were living with HIV in 2025
According to UNAIDS, 32.5 million people worldwide were living with HIV in 2010.
By 2020, that number had increased to 38.9 million and reached 41 million in 2025.
The increase in the number of people living with HIV is largely a consequence of improved treatment and longer life expectancy among those infected.
At the same time, the number of new infections has declined significantly.
Around 1.2 million new HIV infections were recorded globally in 2025, approximately 43% fewer than in 2010.
However, experts are concerned that reductions in spending on prevention, diagnosis and testing could reverse some of this progress.
“We are seeing reports suggesting that less funding will be allocated to prevention, diagnosis and testing. Unfortunately, we are already observing such trends globally,” Cielniak says.
“Less funding will mean more people living with HIV. This will not affect only one particular group of patients. It concerns everyone who may have been exposed to infection.”
She points out that HIV transmission is not limited to sexual contact. It can also occur through exposure to infected blood or from mother to child if the infection is not diagnosed and treated.
“If people are not treated and tested, we will not be able to limit the epidemic,” she says.
The 95–95–95 target has not been achieved everywhere
UNAIDS set the so-called 95–95–95 target for 2025.
The goal was for 95% of all people living with HIV to know their status, 95% of those diagnosed to receive treatment, and 95% of people on treatment to achieve viral suppression.
Not all countries reached the target, which means it remains an important benchmark under the new global AIDS strategy for 2026–2031.
Prevention is also becoming increasingly important.
“Today, we place a lot of hope in prevention. Pre-exposure prophylaxis, which is used before HIV infection occurs, may in the coming years contribute to reducing the number of people living with HIV,” Cielniak says.
“Today HIV is a chronic condition that requires treatment. Perhaps in 10 or 20 years, thanks to preventive measures, the number of people living with HIV will be much lower.”
Awareness of HIV remains limited
Public education remains another important part of HIV prevention.
According to the report Poles’ Knowledge About HIV and Risky Behaviour. Attitudes Towards HIV Testing 2025, prepared for the National AIDS Centre, 37% of Poles rate their knowledge of HIV prevention methods as high, while 23% consider their knowledge low.
At the same time, some attitudes towards HIV risk have changed significantly.
National surveys cited in the report show that in 2005, 66% of respondents believed HIV infection represented a real risk that people should be concerned about.
By 2025, that share had fallen to just 9%.
Experts warn that this decline in perceived risk does not necessarily reflect the actual epidemiological situation.
“The younger generation of people in their twenties, despite having access to many reliable digital sources, still knows too little,” Jezierski says.
“This brings us to the issue of possible systemic changes. If health or sexual education is not provided systematically – and to talk about HIV, we also have to talk about sex – it is difficult to expect society as a whole to be well educated.”
Experts see changing patterns of infection in Poland
Jezierski also points to changing patterns of HIV infection in Poland.
“This epidemic is changing in Poland in a certain way. We are seeing more infections among heterosexual people,” he says.
“I work as a pre- and post-test counsellor at a testing centre and speak to people who come there. In general, heterosexual people tend to have somewhat lower awareness and are more likely to think that HIV simply does not concern them. Unfortunately, the consequences of that attitude can be seen in the statistics.”
Public-health experts have repeatedly stressed that HIV does not affect only particular social or demographic groups.
Risk depends primarily on exposure, not on identity or membership of a specific group.
HIV discussion should not be limited to World AIDS Day
The creators and participants of the “Pozytywnie też znaczy dobrze” campaign argue that public discussion about HIV should not take place only around World AIDS Day on 1 December.
For that reason, the campaign was launched during the summer holiday season, when issues related to sexual-health prevention become particularly relevant.
Despite the enormous progress made in treatment over recent decades, experts stress that the basic tools for controlling HIV remain unchanged: testing, early diagnosis, access to effective treatment, prevention and reliable education.
The medical outlook for people diagnosed with HIV has improved dramatically. The public-health challenge now lies increasingly in ensuring that people know their status early enough to benefit from treatment and prevent further transmission.
