A record number of people in Ireland were diagnosed with HIV last year - double that of any other European country, where the virus is decreasing significantly.

There were 531 people in the country diagnosed with HIV in 2018, the highest number on record.

One person in Ireland is now being told they have HIV every 17 hours, with numbers higher than during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s.

In other EU countries, such as the UK, there has been a push to prevent the spread of the virus which has led to a significant decrease in the number of new cases.

Usually sexually transmitted, HIV is a virus that damages the immune system's cells and weakens a person's ability to fight infections and disease.


Image: HIV can be tested quickly using a finger prick test

Although there is no cure, HIV sufferers can live a normal life through treatment, but if not treated it can lead to AIDS, when the immune system is too weak to fight off infection and subsequently death.

Campaigners in Ireland have called the rise in diagnoses an HIV crisis and say a lack of urgency from the government is compounding the problem.

Ireland's outdated sex education programme, a lack of preventative medicine and blaming those who are diagnosed are fuelling the increase, they said.

The problem is so severe that ACT UP Dublin, a group active in the early 1990s which worked to end the crisis then, reformed in 2016 to again fight the stigma surrounding HIV, campaigning for access to preventative medicine and more comprehensive testing.

Image: PrEP, a preventative medicine, is not available in Ireland

PrEP, a preventative medicine which is taken daily, reduces the risk of contracting HIV by more than 99% and is at least as effective as condoms at preventing the virus spreading - but is not available in Ireland.

The government's health service, HSE, and its independent safety board, HIQA, are trying to make the drug available, but campaigners say the process is taking too long and urgent action needs to be taken.

A lack of proper sex education, integral for tackling myths and stigma around HIV, is also being blamed for the rise.

Ireland's sex education programme has not been changed in 20 years, with the Oireachtas Education Committee last month calling for the government to reform it.

In 2017 an HIV Ireland report found people aged 18-34 were more misinformed than other age groups.

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People within that age group were found to be most likely to incorrectly believe that HIV can be passed to another person through a blood transfusion, kissing someone and sharing a toilet seat.

Noel Donnellon from ACT UP Dublin said: "We are absolutely in a crisis, we are seeing rising numbers of new diagnoses, in direct opposition with what is happening with the rest of Europe, and it's not a coincidence that we also have an outdated or non-existent sex education programme compared to other countries too.

"PrEP is important, but it's part of a programme, we need better education, we need more accessible testing services, and we need to tackle the stigma surrounding HIV and getting tested.

"HIV is still seen as dirty, people use it as a finger-wagging exercise, that it's self-inflicted, when it's just not the case.

"You would never judge someone who was diagnosed with cancer, as a nation we need to remember the 'H' in HIV stands for human, and it's a human issue, not something to judge people for."

Image: Taioseach Leo Varadkar became the first Irish leader to publicly take an HIV test in December

A Department of Health spokeswoman said reducing the number of new HIV cases remains a priority.

"The department welcomes the significant progress that has been made over the past number of years but acknowledges more must be done to reduce the number of people diagnosed with HIV," she said.

"Considerable work has already been completed by the HSE to prepare for the introduction of a programme that meets appropriate standards."