Britain Has Record Number Of HIV Diagnoses In
2002 By Patricia Reaney 12-1-2
- LONDON (Reuters) - New
cases of HIV diagnosed in Britain this year are expected to increase by
20 percent in what public health experts described on Saturday as an
extremely worrying trend.
-
- The record number of new cases is more than twice the
amount being reported at the end of the 1990s.
-
- "We're two decades into this and we still haven't got
it under control in the UK, and it is one of the world's richest
countries with a developed healthcare system," Dr Barry Evans, a health
expert at the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) which monitors
infectious diseases, told Reuters.
-
- New figures released by the PHLS on the eve of World
AIDS Day on December 1 show that up to the end of September, 2,945 new
diagnoses had been reported, compared to 2,354 for the same time last
year.
-
- By the end of 2002, the number is expected to hit
6,000, about 1,200 more than in 2001.
-
- "We are moving in the wrong direction and that is
extremely worrying," said Evans.
-
- The increases in new HIV diagnoses represents
heterosexual transmissions in people coming from highly infected
countries, including sub-Saharan Africa where the epidemic has hit the
hardest, and an increase in unsafe sex among gay men in Britain.
-
- According to the PHLS estimates, approximately 1,500
gay men across the country are contracting HIV each year.
-
- "Our best estimate of the overall number of HIV
infected individuals within the UK, both diagnosed and undiagnosed, is
around 41,200, and just over 12,900 of those are undiagnosed," Evans
explained.
-
- The latest statistics from the PHLS mirror increases
in HIV infections around the world.
-
- UNAID, the United Nations organization spearheading
the global battle against HIV/AIDS, said earlier this week that by the
end of 2002, 42 million people worldwide will be living with HIV/AIDS
and five million were newly infected in 2002.
-
- The global statistics also indicate that HIV/AIDS is
increasingly becoming a disease affecting women. For the first time
since the start of the epidemic, 50 percent of HIV-positive adults
worldwide are female.
-
- "Safe sex is everybody's responsibility, not only
those who have been diagnosed with HIV or with other sexually
transmitted infections (STIs)," Dr Kevin Fenton, the head of the HIV and
STI division of the PHLS, said in a statement.
-
- "It is vital that we start once again to educate
people about the importance of practicing safer sex," he added.
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