New HIV infections among homosexuals up sharply in HK

HONG KONG, May 30 (Reuters) New HIV infections among homosexual men are on the rise in Hong Kong and a government consultant warned today that prevalence of the disease in this group could hit 30 per cent by 2020 if nothing is done.

The government this week reported 91 new HIV infections in the first quarter of 2007, up from 89 in the same period in 2006.

Of those, 35 were in men who had had homosexual sex, said Wong Ka-hing, consultant with the Health Department. This compared with 29 new infections in the first quarter of 2006 and 19 in the same period of 2005.

''If there is no intervention, HIV-infected men who have sex with men could hit 15,000 by 2020 in Hong Kong, that would be a prevalence of 30 per cent,'' Wong said in a telephone interview.

HIV prevalence in this group is estimated at 4 per cent now.

Experts would consider any high-risk group as having a ''concentrated epidemic'' once prevalence reaches 5 per cent.

Concern groups say the spike in new HIV infections among homosexual men is not confined to Hong Kong.

High prevalence rates are observed in Thailand (28 per cent), Nepal (4 per cent), Taiwan (8 per cent), Vietnam (8 per cent) and Cambodia (14 per cent), according to a report in August 2006 by the help group TREAT Asia.

Homosexual men make up a substantial portion of new HIV infections in South Korea and Singapore.

''New HIV infections are increasing among men who have sex with men everywhere. Some of that is of a cross-border nature because of gay parties,'' said Loretta Wong, who heads the help group, Aids Concern, in Hong Kong.

''Some are under the influence of drugs and they don't even remember if they used condoms. People tend to be less careful when they are overseas.'' Of concern is one cluster of new infections in Hong Kong which ballooned from 34 men last September to 53 by March.

''Genetically, viruses isolated from them are very similar.

From genetic sequencing, we determined they were all together (passed the virus to one another),'' consultant Wong said.

A smaller cluster in Hong Kong grew less rapidly, from 12 men last September to 13 by March.

The government has yet to find out how the virus spread in the bigger cluster, or if there is a ''super-spreader'' involved.

Consultant Wong said greater numbers of homosexual men were using the Internet to hunt for sex partners.

''We did a study recently and found that people are looking for sex partners on the Internet but we do not know if this cluster was formed that way,'' consultant Wong said, adding that the government was trying to promote safe sex via the Internet.

But Loretta Wong cautioned against losing sight of other high-risk groups, such as heterosexual men with multiple sex partners, the commercial sex industry and intravenous drug users.

''There are many things we need to do to prevent this from escalating further,'' Loretta Wong said.

REUTERS GL RK1728