THE number of people in Britain who have HIV is continuing to rise, with more than 7,000 new cases in the past year.

Statistics from the Health Protection Agency show that 53,000 adults have the virus that causes Aids, and that up to 14,300 cases are undiagnosed.

There were 6,606 diagnoses of HIV infection during 2003, a figure expected to exceed 7,000 once all data have been collected. It is more than double the figure in 1998. Each HIV infection is thought to cost between £500,000 and £1 million in treatment and lost productivity.

Kevin Fenton, the author of the report, said: “This increase in the number of newly diagnosed infections is the result of a combination of factors, but is largely contributed to by the migration of people from areas of the world where there is a high prevalence of HIV, such as sub-Saharan Africa. The number of new infections diagnosed in gay and bisexual men is expected to be the highest for over ten years, with 1,735 diagnoses reported so far.”

Dr Fenton said that the number of cases of infection that were likely to have been acquired heterosexually in this country had also increased, from 139 in 1998 to 341 in 2003.

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