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Britain Experiences Steep AIDS Rise
http://www.datalounge.com/datalounge/news/record.html?record=20393
Wednesday,
4 December 2002
LONDON
-- In what public health officials in Britain deemed an
"extremely worrying trend," new cases of HIV
diagnosed in the UK in 2002 are expected to increase by 20
percent, 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 of the Public Health Laboratory Service, told the
Reuters news agency.
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"We
still haven't got it under control in the UK."
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New
figures released December 1, World AIDS Day, 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. The PHLS
estimates that 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 are attributed partly to heterosexual transmissions
in emigres from highly infected countries in sub-Saharan
Africa, and partly, say officials, from an increase in unsafe
sex among gay Britons.
"Our
best estimate of the overall number of HIV infected
individuals within the UK is around 41,200, and just over
12,900 of those are undiagnosed," Evans said. PHLS
estimates the number of gay men contracting HIV in Britain
stands at about 1,500 annually.
UNAIDS,
the United Nations organization spearheading the global battle
against HIV/AIDS, said on Sunday that by the end of 2002, 42
million people worldwide will be living with HIV/AIDS and five
million were newly infected in 2002.
--
Editor
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