Story maps
故事地圖

1 December is World AIDS Day, the day that the world is reminded of our fight against HIV, the virus causing AIDS. In 2020, normal delivery of healthcare services has been disrupted because of COVID-19 pandemic and the corresponding social distancing and other regulations. Provision and utilization of HIV testing service have also been affected. Areas highlighted in darker colours on the map refer to places with low awareness of HIV in 2020. In a number of countries, less than 50% of people living with HIV knew their status.

HIV infection may be asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic in the initial phase. Some infected people may not be diagnosed until they develop serious complications. Late HIV diagnosis commonly refers to cases with CD4 count below 350/uL or with AIDS at the time of diagnosis. Compared to people with early diagnosis, those with late diagnosis would have relatively poorer treatment effect and higher mortality rate. From the public health perspective, late diagnosis may also imply posing an increased risk of onward community transmission during the prolonged undiagnosed period. Countries with over half of their HIV cases diagnosed late are labelled with yellow or red circles on the map.

If exposure to HIV is suspected, or if there have been high risk exposure, get tested as soon as possible for timely treatment initiation.

Data for the maps were extracted from UNAIDS.

12 月 1 日是世界愛滋病日，提醒全世界我們與愛滋病病毒 (HIV) 的鬥爭。在2020年，2019新冠病毒疫情及疫情期間的社交距離等防疫措施對日常醫療服務提供造成不少影響。其中，HIV檢測服務提供和使用率亦有可能因此而受影響。地圖上較?深色的地方標示出2020年估計已知感染者的百分比，可見仍有一些地方只有少於50%的感染者得悉自己的感染狀況，情況令人關注。

由於HIV感染初期通常只有輕微症狀或無症狀，以致有些感染者在出現嚴重併發症才被確診。 延誤確診一般指感染者在確診時的CD4細胞量低於350/uL或已患上愛滋病。因此，對比及時確診者，延誤確診者的治療效果會較差，而死亡率亦較高。從公共衛生角度，由於延誤確診者的未確診感染期較長，所以也會增加社區的傳播風險。地圖可見有黃色或紅色圓圈標示的地方，表示有超過一半感染者是延誤確診。

如果懷疑有可能感染愛滋病病毒，或有高接觸風險，就應該進行愛滋病病毒檢測，避免延誤確診，把握治療時機。

地圖資料源自聯合國愛滋病規劃署。