The number of newly-diagnosed cases of HIV infection looks set to continue its upward trend with a slight increase in the 2015 figures expected. The increase in the annual infection rate was signaled by the Executive Director of the NZ AIDS Foundation in his speech to the Candlelight Memorial service of remembrance last evening. If so, the figures, expected to be released publicly within a week, will break last year's record for the highest annual number of new infections since the epidemic began in the 1980s. A total of 136 men who have sex with men were newly diagnosed as having HIV in 2014 compared with 100 in 2013. The NZAF, the country's main HIV prevention organisation seeking to hold back the three decades long epidemic, has been fighting a second surge of HIV infections amongst gay and bi men since the year 2000.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 16th May 2016 - 10:02am