The number of people living with HIV in the UK is now around 58,300, according to the report. This figures includes both people who have been diagnosed and also an estimated 19,700 who remain unaware of their infection and are therefore undiagnosed at present.
“While there has been a leveling off in the number of diagnoses likely to have been acquired through heterosexual sex in Africa between 2003 and 2004 (from 3457 to 3138), there has been a slow but steady rise in the number of heterosexual infections acquired in the UK in recent years, from 227 diagnoses in 2000 to 498 in 2004,” said Dr Barry Evans, an HIV expert at the Health Protection Agency.
The study also revealed that a steep rise in the number of syphilis infections from 2003 to 2004, from 1641 to 2254, has occurred against a backdrop of several localized outbreaks in areas such as London and Manchester.