An increasing proportion of British people with HIV and Aids are living longer, it has emerged. The...
An increasing proportion of British people with HIV and Aids are living longer, it has emerged.
The findings published in a report by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) called A Complete Picture, suggested there are an estimated 63,500 adults living with HIV in the UK.
According to Dr Valerie Delpech, an HIV expert at the HPA, this is due to: "People living longer with HIV due to advances in treatment, sustained levels of newly acquired infections in gay men, further diagnoses among heterosexuals who acquired their infection in Africa, and cases being picked up earlier."
She added: "The high level of new HIV cases being diagnosed continued in 2005 with 7,450 cases recorded, including almost 2,400 new cases in gay men."
The report suggested the global HIV epidemic continued to affect black and ethnic minority populations in the UK, these groups accounting for around two thirds of all new cases reported over the past year.
"Although the majority of these are contracted in countries of higher prevalence and particularly through links with Africa, more of these cases are now being contracted within the UK," Delpech added.
The release of the report was timed to coincide with World Aids Day and mark the 25th anniversary of the first reported cases of Aids in the UK.
Over the past quarter of a century, there has been significant progress in the containment of HIV.
