A near-record number of infections in HK prompts calls for better education, especially for cross-border travellers
A health chief warned against complacency and an Aids activist urged better education for cross-border travellers yesterday after a near-record number of HIV infections was recorded in Hong Kong in the first quarter of the year.
Eighty-nine new infections were recorded, up from 65 in the previous quarter and just two short of the record 91 cases in the third quarter of last year, when the annual total was 313 infections - the most since 1984.
The Centre for Health Protection's senior medical officer, Raymond Ho Lei-ming, warned that if the trend continued, this year could see a record number of new cases of the virus, which can lead to full-blown Aids.
The new cases took the total number of infections to 2,914. Of these patients, 799 have Aids. Seventeen people with HIV developed Aids in the first three months of this year.
Of the new HIV infections, 52 were contracted from sexual contact and eight from drug use. The cause of infection of the other 29 was not known.
Dr Ho blamed the high rate of infections on over-optimism for treatment for the virus and a lack of awareness of the need to practise safe sex.