On the occasion of the international AIDS conference at the end of July in Munich, the Robert Koch Institute has released new Key Data and Trends for the federal states and Germany, as well as a comprehensive analysis of the HIV/AIDS situation in Germany. The data has been published in English in the Epidemiological Bulletin 28/2024. The number of new HIV infections in Germany and among people of German origin who have contracted HIV abroad is estimated to be 1,900 in 2022 and 2,200 in 2023, which means that the number of new HIV infections in 2023 will be roughly the same as in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic. Compared to previous years, the proportion of first diagnoses with advanced infection or in the AIDS stage remained roughly constant. As HIV generally no longer leads to death, the number of people living with an HIV infection in Germany rose to 96,700 by the end of 2023. Of these, around 8,200 HIV infections have not yet been diagnosed.

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Global Health is a dynamic and interdisciplinary field. As a national public health institute, the Robert Koch Institute is an international network hub for health protection, with its own international department - the Centre for International Health Protection. The RKI is a cooperation partner of the new interdisciplinary PhD programme Global Health in Berlin, which starts in October 2024. Applications are possible from 20 June to 20 August 2024. The structured, English-language PhD programme is aimed at candidates from all disciplines relevant to global health, and 15 people are accepted each year.

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It has been well-documented that residents of socioeconomically deprived regions die earlier than those in wealthier areas, which is also true for Germany. A research team led by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has now shown that the life expectancy gap between Germany’s deprived and affluent regions is wider today than it was 20 years ago—and has investigated for the first time which causes of death are behind this socioeconomic life expectancy gap. Colleagues from the Federal Institute for Population Research in Wiesbaden and the Hannover Medical School also contributed to the study. The results have been published in The Lancet Public Health and Bundesgesundheitsblatt.

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Egyptian fruit bats are the known reservoir of the deadly Marburg virus. However, it is unknown how these bats handle Marburg virus infection without developing disease, unlike humans. Now, an international research team led by Robert Koch Institute and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has shown for the first time that a specific inflammatory immune response is required to control Marburg virus in Egyptian fruit bats. The work has been published in the journal Nature communications

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Ebola virus (formerly known as Zaire ebolavirus) is known to be one of the deadliest human pathogens on our planet for more than 40 years, however, there is still no convincing evidence identifying a natural reservoir host nor the mechanisms of virus circulation in nature. Now, an international team lead by scientists from Robert Koch Institute have shown experimentally how Ebola virus replicates and transmits in Angolan free-tailed bats which are common in Sub-Saharan Africa. Their findings have been published in Nature Communications.

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The number of the month for January - 19.7 million - refers to the number of visits to the doctor due to an acute respiratory infection since the start of the current season, from the 40th week (beginning of October) up to and including the 52nd week, in Germany.

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