To combat acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), the government will focus on preventing new infections of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and drastically improving access to healthcare.

As a means of expanding medical access, it will actively detect patients, expand opportunities for self-testing, increase testing institutions to private healthcare facilities, and subsidize HIV testing at urologists' offices for prompt and ongoing treatment, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

As surviving infected people age, the government will also promote plans to expand specialized care hospitals and facilities for infected people. The KDCA unveiled these and other plans at a public hearing to establish the “Second Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Prevention and Control Plan.”

According to the KDCA, the number of new HIV infections worldwide is on the decline. The number of newly infected people was 1.3 million in 2012, a 38 percent decrease from 2010. However, Korea is experiencing an increase in new HIV infections due to the steady increase in infected foreigners. In 2022, 1,066 people were newly infected, up 27.3 percent from 837 in 2010

The number of people living with AIDS continues to increase both here and abroad, the KDCA said.

That’s because antiretroviral treatment is becoming more widely available, and deaths are declining. The number of people living with AIDS in the world was 39 million in 2022, and the number of people living with AIDS in Korea was 15,880, more than doubling from 6,239 in 2010. Moreover, as the life expectancy increased, the number of people aged 60 and over accounted for 18.4 percent of the total.

However, the KDCA plans to achieve a 95 percent infection recognition rate and 95 percent viral suppression rate by 2030 through its second AIDS prevention and control plan of "zero new HIV infections, zero deaths, and zero discrimination.”

Therefore, it will promote preventing new infections, active patient detection, prompt and continuous treatment, guaranteeing the right to health, and building a management foundation.

To prevent new infections, the government will strengthen prevention activities for vulnerable groups by promoting prevention through LGBTQ online communities and dating apps, distributing condoms and self-testing kits, and developing recommendations for post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) with academic institutions.

To ease the cost burden of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), the government will gradually expand PrEP coverage, currently limited to "sexual partners of infected individuals," to include high-risk individuals who seek prescriptions.

The KDCA will also support the introduction of generic versions of PrEP, including Truvada, which suppresses HIV and slows its progression. For this purpose, it will cooperate with the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

To proactively detect patients, it will strengthen screening of high-risk groups and expand opportunities for self-testing, such as promoting online services to distribute self-testing kits and consider subsidizing HIV testing at infectious diseases and urology clinics for vulnerable groups.

It will also improve the diagnostic testing system. The final confirmation of HIV infection status, conducted by the KDCA and the Korea Research Institute of Health and Environment, will be expanded to private medical institutions to ensure prompt notification of test results and early treatment.

In addition, the government plans to collaborate with relevant academic societies for rapid and continuous treatment, educate infectious disease doctors on the latest knowledge on rapid antiretroviral treatment, and develop a plan to manage undocumented aliens to curb the domestic spread of the disease among those who are not covered by health insurance.

Besides, the government is considering ways to prepare for the aging of surviving infected people and secure nursing hospitals and facilities for infected people.

It plans to secure cooperative hospitals for the care of infected people through local medical centers, public nursing hospitals, and friendly private hospitals in the region or to include the care of HIV-infected people in the reorganization of the functions of the National Tuberculosis Hospital. Another option is to turn Hansen’s disease patients’ nursing facilities, whose enrollment is declining, into HIV-infected people’s nursing facilities.

Besides, the government plans to conduct a national awareness survey on HIV/AIDS to reduce stigmatization and discrimination against infected people, as well as a survey on stigmatization and discrimination against infected people.

"Through the first round of measures, we have improved the cure rate and viral suppression rate of HIV-infected people," said Park Young-joon, head of the AIDS Management Division at the KDCA's Infectious Disease Policy Bureau. "To combat AIDS, we will actively collect various opinions discussed at this public hearing and establish the second round of preventive management measures through follow-up procedures."