Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is the virus that causes AIDS. It is transmitted when infected body fluids such as blood, semen or vaginal secretions come in contact with an uninfected person's broken skin or mucous membranes. Some examples of how transmission can occur are: vaginal, anal or oral sex, sharing of drug equipment or an infected mother can pass it to her child during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding. There are methods of preventing HIV transmission as well as therapies to manage the infection, but there is no cure.
You can have HIV without knowing it, which is why it’s so important to get tested. All of the health unit’s sexual health clinics offer confidential HIV testing and counseling. The health unit now offers an anonymous HIV testing clinic which can include point of care HIV testing.
Untreated HIV can lead to AIDS related illnesses. AIDS stands for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. Some people with HIV will develop AIDS from their HIV infection. People with AIDS often develop certain infections and/or cancers and have fewer immune cells to protect them. For more information, see the CATIE’s HIV Fact Sheet.
Simcoe Muskoka
Ontario
By Age Group
By Sex
Technical Notes
The following graph shows the number of new HIV cases in Simcoe Muskoka between 2000 and 2021. There have been between 3 and 17 cases of HIV in Simcoe Muskoka every year since 2000. In 2021, 12 new cases of HIV/AIDS were reported to the health unit. In recent years the most common risk factors reported among HIV cases in Simcoe Muskoka are:
- Sex with same sex
- Anonymous sex
- No condom use.
As most reported cases are male, this represents men who have casual or anonymous unprotected sex with men.
New cases of AIDS are shown in the graph below for 2000 to 2021. In 2021, there was one new case of AIDS reported to the health unit.
Ontario
The following graph shows the age-standardized incidence rate of new HIV in Simcoe Muskoka and Ontario between 2005 and 2021. The Ontario data from 2000-2004 are not available. The incidence rate in Simcoe Muskoka is lower than the Ontario rate with 2.0 cases per 100,000 population as compared with 4.4 cases per 100,000 population in Ontario.
The following graph shows the age-standardized incidence rate of new AIDS cases in Simcoe Muskoka and Ontario between 2005 and 2021. The incidence rate in Simcoe Muskoka is similar to the Ontario rate with 0.2 cases per 100,000 population as compared with 0.3 cases per 100,000 population in Ontario.
By Age
The following graph shows the age-specific incidence rate of HIV in Simcoe Muskoka between 2000 and 2021. The age-specific rates are variable because they are based on small numbers of cases. In the last four years, the highest incidence rate has been observed among 25-39 year-olds.
By Sex
The following graph shows the sex-specific incidence rate of HIV in Simcoe Muskoka between 2000 and 2021. The sex specific rates are variable because they are based on small numbers of cases. The incidence of HIV in males is higher than the incidence rate among females in most years. In 2021, the rate of HIV in males was 2.49 cases per 100,000 population and the female rate was 0.65 cases per 100,000 population.
More detailed data for Ontario and each health unit can be found on Public Health Ontario’s interactive Reportable Disease Trends in Ontario tool.
Technical Notes
There are many factors that influence how many cases are reported to the health unit, as explained on the Infectious Diseases page. It is unclear to what extent the global COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the reporting and spread of other infectious diseases – counts and rates of disease since 2020 should be interpreted with caution.
There is some variability in the Simcoe Muskoka incidence rate, which means that there are multiple peaks and valleys and it is difficult to determine whether an increase is significant or whether it is within the expected range for this disease.
HIV and AIDS are chronic diseases, which means they are lifelong diseases. Although HIV is not curable, there is effective treatment that can reduce the amount of virus to undetectable levels in the body, which would also prevent sexual transmission to others (Undetectable = Untransmittable). If untreated, someone who is living with HIV/AIDS can potentially transmit the virus to other people. The provincial reportable disease database (iPHIS) counts incidence and not prevalence, so the graphs on this page only show the number of new cases every year and not existing cases. Therefore, the number of people infected with HIV/AIDS in Simcoe Muskoka (i.e. those who can spread the disease) is higher than the numbers shown in the graphs.
Due to the small number of cases, there is a lot of variability in the sex-specific and age-specific rates.
Page last updated December 5, 2022