HK records 131 HIV cases in second quarter

A total of 131 cases of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infections were reported in Hong Kong in the second quarter of 2012, the city's Health Department announced Tuesday.

The latest HIV figure along with the 30 newly reported cases of AIDS, a disease caused by HIV, have respectively brought the total of reported HIV infections to 5,523 since 1984 and the total of confirmed AIDS cases to 1,311 since 1985.

Reviewing the HIV/AIDS situation in Hong Kong at a press conference on Tuesday, a medical consultant of the department Dr Wong Ka-hing said that sexual transmission remained the major mode of HIV transmission in Hong Kong.

Of the 131 HIV cases reported in this quarter, 65 acquired the infection via homosexual or bisexual contact and 29 via heterosexual contact. The routes of transmission of the remaining 37 cases were undetermined due to inadequate information.

The 131 cases comprised 99 males and 32 females.

Forty-three percent of the new AIDS cases were related to homosexual or bisexual contact and another 50 percent were attributed to heterosexual contact.

In this quarter, the most common AIDS-defining illness was Pneumocystis Pneumonia, a kind of chest infection.