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THE number of people diagnosed with HIV has risen nearly 40 per cent in six years, new figures show.
There was a 39 per cent increase in the number of people diagnosed with the virus across Australia between 1999 and 2005, according to the research published in the CSIRO’s Sexual Health journal.
The annual number decreased between 1993 and 1999 by 32 per cent from 1056 to 719 but increased between 1999 and 2006 by 39 per cent - from 719 to 997.
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A team of university academics and government officials said in the journal’s special HIV edition that the rising number of sexually transmitted infections and falling condom use could be behind the increase.
The researchers also said that since 2000, nearly one in five people diagnosed with the virus believed they contracted HIV during heterosexual sex.
Of those, a third were born in “a high-prevalence country” - where more than 1 per cent of the population had the virus. Another 19 per cent said that their sexual partner was from a high-prevalence country.
“People born in several countries of Africa and Asia are much more likely to be diagnosed with heterosexually acquired HIV infection than those from other countries of birth, including Australia,” the researchers said.
Significant increases in diagnosis rates associated with heterosexual contact were observed in Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia.
The researchers said more needed to be done to stop HIV from spreading at such a high rate.
“Recent increases in annual numbers of HIV diagnoses in Australia underline the continuing need for HIV-prevention programs, particularly among men having male to male sex.”
Victoria had the fastest growing rate of HIV diagnoses in gay men - with a 131 per cent increase in new sufferers between 1999 and 2005.
In Queensland, the number of gay men diagnosed grew by 55 per cent. But NSW - which has the highest rate of HIV diagnoses - had a relatively small increase of just 8 per cent.