‘Alarming’ increase, driven by growing number of cases involving gay men and young people, prompts calls for improved sex education
The number of new HIV cases recorded in the city is set to hit a record high for the fourth year running and may pass 600 for the first time, a government consultant says.
Some 304 new cases were diagnosed in the first half of the year, Dr Wong Ka-hing said, well up on the 262 new cases reported in the same period last year. There were 559 new HIV cases in the whole of last year.
The figures, and the fact many young people were among those affected, have raised concerns that the message on the importance of safe sex is not getting through.
Wong, a Health Department consultant, said that gay men made up the biggest group of new patients, in line with international trends.
“It is worrying. It is likely that the annual figure will surge past 600, which will be the highest figure in Hong Kong history,” Wong said yesterday.
Of the 150 new cases reported between April and June, more than 80 per cent were men, of whom more than half had had sex with other men. Some 16 per cent of cases involved heterosexual sex, while 2.7 per cent were contracted through injections. More than a quarter had an undetermined cause.
Emily Tsang
South China Morning Post
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