New HIV diagnoses amongst people presumed exposed to HIV through sex between
men and women outnumbered those amongst gay men during the first quarter of
1999, said the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre this month. Although the
difference is slight (244 vs 240), it is the first time that gay men have not
formed the majority of new HIV diagnoses in the United Kingdom. It is unclear
from data released by the CDSC what proportion of diagnoses occurred amongst
Africans now resident in the UK.
In 1998 955 new HIV diagnoses were attributed to sex between men and women,
compared with 1301 diagnoses amongst gay men. Approximately five hundred of the
former were connected with Africa in some way.
Up to the end of 1998 sex between men and women accounted for 24% of HIV
diagnoses in England and Wales, but accounted for 39% of all new diagnoses in
1998.
The full 1998 HIV/AIDS Surveillance Tables are available at href="http://www.phls.co.uk/facts/hiv.htm">http://www.phls.co.uk/facts/hiv.htm
and the CDR Weekly, which summarises HIV and AIDS statistics once a month, is
available at href="http://www.phls.co.uk/publications/cdrw.htm">http://www.phls.co.uk/publications/cdrw.htm