United Press International - Friday, 1 June 2001
Al Webb, UPI Science News

The United Kingdom's PHLS reported a record 3,435 new cases of the virus last year, a 14 percent increase on the figures for 1999. It estimated that another 10,000 men and women in Britain were infected but had not been diagnosed.

Health officials said the 2001 figure was the highest recorded in any year since HIV testing became widely available 16 years ago.

The statistics reflect the increasing numbers of heterosexuals who were becoming infected, said the PHLS. The report showed 48 percent of the newly diagnosed cases of HIV had been acquired through heterosexual contact, compared with 37 percent through homosexual sex.

Dr. Barry Evans, head of the service's HIV division, said the worrisome fact was that unsafe sex has been on the increase for the past five years and that many of the new cases could have been prevented.

"We cannot afford to be complacent about unsafe sex," he said, "and the basic prevention message must remain the same -- use a condom when having sex with a new casual partner and, in the case of injecting drug use, never share needles."

"Many of those being diagnosed are people who were infected some years ago but who only now coming forward for testing," Evans pointed out. He viewed this as "good news, because once people are diagnosed they can seek treatment."

The PHLS report's release came one week before the 20th anniversary of the first AIDS case being recorded in the United States, health experts said.

The World Health Organization estimated 36 million people globally are living with AIDS or HIV -- a figure 50 percent higher than WHO's prediction in 1991.

A spokeswoman for the PHLS said people who suspect they might have HIV should be tested immediately for the virus so they can be treated.

"Although an HIV infection cannot be cured," she said, "treatment can largely prevent progression of the disease."

An independent agency, the Terrence Higgins Trust Lighthouse HIV and Aids charity, estimates that more than 30,000 people in the United Kingdom are now infected with the virus -- over twice the PHLS estimates.

The PHLS data, said Paul Ward, deputy chief executive of the trust, "prove that HIV is still a major problem in the United Kingdom, where over 14,000 people have died from AIDS-related illnesses since reporting began."

Derek Bodell, chief executive of Britain's National AIDS Trust, said that "although HIV treatments are helping people with the virus in richer nations like the United Kingdom to live longer and healthier lives, a worrying trend is that up to 25 percent of new HIV cases are showing signs of resistance to these drugs."
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