Death rate down, but HIV infection at record high

HIV infection rates in the UK hit an high last year, according to the latest official figures, and are set to continue rising.

The figures are clear evidence that HIV/Aids has not gone away in this country. Powerful drug combinations have slashed the death rate, but have led to complacency in some quarters, which may be behind some of the rise in infection rates.

The public health laboratory service revealed that 2,868 new diagnoses were reported in 2000 with further diagnoses pending.

There was alarm when the 1999 statistics showed the highest infection rate for 10 years. Updated figures for 1999 now show it was worse - there were more diagnoses than for any year since testing began in 1985.

But 2000 has already topped that, with a 7% increase on 1999.

Part of the reason is that people who were infected many years ago are only now coming forward for testing, according to the PHLS. But there are many new infections too, suggesting that people have begun to ignore or forget the safe sex message. There are also large increases in other sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea.

"This is the second consecutive year where we have reported record levels of HIV diagnoses," said Barry Evans, head of the HIV division of the PHLS communicable disease surveillance centre.

"We are now two decades into the HIV epidemic, but we continue to see new cases of an infection which is largely preventable. We cannot afford to be complacent about safer sex. The basic prevention messages remain the same: use a condom when having sex with a new or casual partner and in the case of injecting drug use, never share injecting equipment."

Funding for HIV/Aids projects has been cut back because of the success of modern drugs in keeping people alive. The UK's largest HIV/Aids charities, the Terrence Higgins Trust Lighthouse and the National Aids Trust warned that more investment in public education was needed to counter the rising infection rate. "With one case of HIV now being reported every 3 hours, we are concerned that the UK's fight against HIV is beginning to falter," said Derek Bodell, chief executive of the NAT.

"If we are to reverse this worrying trend we need to improve our investment in targeted HIV education campaigns, and the government must make this a priority in its long-awaited HIV and sexual health strategy," Mr Bodell said.