[Epidemiology of human immunodeficiency virus infection in France].

Ten years being the average time between contamination and diagnosis of AIDS, it is necessary for a complete knowledge of HIV infection epidemiology to integrate national AIDS surveillance data as well as data from HIV infection surveillance systems. The latest AIDS surveillance data available are those on December 31, 1994: a cumulative total of 34,287 AIDS cases have been reported since the beginning of the epidemic. Infection data obtained from screening activities match AIDS surveillance data information, ie an increase in female cases and in age at diagnosis. The spread of the AIDS epidemic is currently slow and progressive among the metropolitan heterosexual population, in whom the risk of being contaminated through sexual contact with an infected partner is low, where as the transmission risk remains high among the homo-bisexual and subsaharan African and Caribbean populations that are already considered as the most infected.