More than 500 cases of HIV last year

There were 522 people newly diagnosed with the HIV infection in Greater Manchester in 2008, up from 461 new cases the previous year, according to figures released by the Health Protection Agency North West.

The Agency’s latest annual HIV report revealed that 83,000 people in the UK are now living with HIV infection and the numbers continue to grow year-on-year.

Professor Qutub Syed, Director of HPA North West, said: “As the numbers increase there is a sense that public awareness appears to be diminishing. It is right that the word HIV should not strike terror in the heart as it once did, but it is nonetheless important for people to understand this infection and how to avoid it. There is no room for complacency where HIV/AIDS is concerned.”

The Health Protection Agency released the figures yesterday, which was World AIDs Day.

Professor Syed continued: "World AIDS Day was established to raise awareness of the condition, fight prejudice and improve HIV/AIDS education. The theme for 2009 is universal access and human rights, things we would all support and applaud.”

HPA North West says that HIV infection is preventable and treatable, but not curable. Treatments can keep the virus under control and the immune system healthy, enabling many people with HIV to live normal, healthy lives. However, the treatments do not clear the virus from the body.

Treatments are much more effective in people who are diagnosed with HIV at an early stage. It is therefore important for people who feel that they may have been at risk to ask for an HIV test.

HIV infection and AIDS are not the same. Someone who is living with HIV has the virus in their body. A person has AIDS when the HIV virus causes the body’s immune system to weaken to such an extent that it cannot fight off diseases that it would normally cope with.

The main transmission routes for HIV are; sex without a condom with someone who is living with HIV, the sharing of infected needles by injecting drug-users, from an HIV-positive mother to her child during pregnancy, childbirth or breast-feeding – though there are effective treatments that can greatly reduce this risk.