New Zealand's straight population is not threatened by the HIV epidemic, which over twenty years has killed hundreds of Kiwi men who have sex with men, according to the UN's top expert. The World Health Organisation has long warned that HIV could break out from small affected western populations such as men who have sex with men and intravenous drug users. But now it has changed its stance towards funding campaigns targeting heterosexual people in most areas of the world. "It is very unlikely that there will be a heterosexual epidemic" in most countries, says the head of the WHO's HIV/AIDS department, Dr Kevin De Cock. De Cock says funding for general HIV education and prevention programmes in countries such as New Zealand would be better targeted at specific at-risk sub-populations. "It is astonishing how badly we have done with men who have sex with men," he says. "It is something that is going to have to be discussed much more rigorously." New Zealand has long been held up as an example of a nation which has successfully targeted its main populations at risk of locally contracted infections, and has not had the catastrophic blow-out of infection experienced in some other countries. In the Pacific region only Papua New Guinea has so far experienced a significant heterosexual epidemic, on a level with the spread of the disease in sub-Saharan Africa. However, in common with other western nations, NZ has had a resurgence in HIV infections in the past five years amongst men who have sex with men. Changing social patterns, often associated with the internet, appear to be a significant contributor to the recent increase in infections, which currently sees one more NZ gay or bi man every four to five days newly diagnosed with HIV.