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HIV cases up 17% in HK
A total of 268 Human Immunodeficiency Virus cases were reported to the Hong Kong Department of Health last year, the department said yesterday. According to the department, it was the highest annual number ever recorded and the figure showed a 17 percent increase compared with 229 in the preceding year. Reviewing the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome situation in Hong Kong at a press conference, the department's consultant, S. S. Lee, said sexual transmission continued to be the major mode of HIV spread in the island-city, accounting for 64 percent (172 cases) of the newly reported HIV cases. "Of these cases, 107 involved heterosexual transmission and 65 occurred between men having sex with men; some 28 percent of the reports were incomplete, making the determination of the route of infection impossible," Lee said. He noted that HIV infection contracted through injection drug use had increased to 21 in 2004, from 10 in 2002 and 11 in 2003. A universal HIV testing program was rolled out in January 2004 to all methadone clinics after its pilot run the year before. "In the first year of the program, 8,905 methadone patients were tested for HIV, covering 90 percent of the total attendees," Lee said. "Eighteen tested positive. This was in contrast to the years prior to the program, when only 318 and 148 HIV tests were performed in methadone clinics in 2002 and 2003, respectively, and none were found to be positive," he added. Referring to mother-to-child HIV transmission, Lee said transmission of this kind was becoming a rarity since the implementation of the Universal Antenatal HIV Testing Program in September 2001. "Six HIV-positive pregnant women were diagnosed under this program in 2004. No new perinatal infections have been diagnosed since the introduction of the program," he claimed. Lee said it is estimated that Hong Kong is home to more than 3,000 persons with HIV/AIDS.
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