The Hong Kong health authority had announced on Tuesday that the city has experienced a 37% rise in the number of new HIV infections with 89 new cases reported in the first three months of the year.
According to the Center for Health Protection under the Department of Health, which filed the statistics on the newly reported HIV cases, 58% were related to sexual contact. Reviewing the AIDS situation in Hong Kong at a press conference Tuesday, the department's Senior Medical Officer Dr. Raymond Ho said the predominant route of HIV transmission in this quarter remain sexual contact.
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Ho announced that of the 89 new HIV cases reported, 26 acquired the infection via heterosexual contact, 26 via homosexual or bisexual contact and eight cases of injection drug use. He also said that the routes of transmission of the remaining 29 cases were not yet clear due to inadequate data. It was reported that of the 89 new HIV cases, 70 were males.
The department monitors the HIV/AIDS situation through a voluntary reporting system, and releases quarterly Information on AIDS and data on HIV/AIDS, at its AIDS Unit web page. Dr Ho further explained that the public can request free, anonymous and confidential HIV counseling by calling on the AIDS hotline, '2780 2211'. He announced that the HIV antibody testing could also be arranged as needed through this hotline.
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