JERUSALEM, July 16 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli annual report revealed on Tuesday that there was an increase of 4.9 percent in 2018 in the number of Israelis over the age of 15 who were diagnosed with HIV.
According to the report by Israeli Ministry of Health, 425 Israelis over the age of 15 were diagnosed with HIV in 2018, compared with 405 in 2017.
This is the second consecutive year of increase after four years of decrease.
Notably, the rise in the number of HIV carriers in Israel is the opposite of the global trend that has been steadily declining in the last 22 years, according to data published by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AID (UNAIDS).
The UNAIDS figures show that the annual number of deaths from AIDS-related illness among people living with HIV at all ages has fallen from a peak of 1.7 million in 2004 to 770,000 in 2018.
