HIV Infections Mainly Gay The Health Protection Agency (HPA) has confirmed that 2005 will have seen the highest number of HIV diagnoses ever recorded by the time all reports come in and it says that the increase in diagnoses is almost entirely due to increases among gay men. The HPA estimates that the total number of people diagnosed with HIV in the UK in 2005 will be just under 7,800, compared with just under 7,000 last year. Although infections among gay men only account for 31% of the total, they account for most of the increase. Heterosexual cases increase by only about 1% from 4347 cases in 2004 to an estimated 4400 in 2005. In contrast diagnoses in gay men increased by over 10%, from 2214 in 2004 to an estimated 2450 in 2005. Cases among injecting drug users also went up for the first time in many years with an increase of over 40% in one year from 131 in 2004 to 180 in 2005. An increase in diagnoses doesn’t necessarily mean an increase in
infections, and some of the increase in gay men may be due to more coming
forward for testing. The HPA revised its estimate of the proportion of
gay men with HIV who don’t know they have it upwards last year,
from a quarter to a third. In terms of HIV transmission actually occurring
in the UK, this country continues to have a largely gay epidemic. Eighty-five
per cent of gay men diagnosed caught their HIV in the UK, compared with
only 14% of heterosexuals. Of the heterosexual infections caught abroad,
nine out of ten were caught in Africa. |