More than 300 people had died in Ireland as a result of HIV/ AIDS, and 608 people had been diagnosed as suffering from the disease up to September this year, according to the latest figures from the Department of Health. The number of AIDS sufferers in the world is estimated at 23 million.
Events were held yesterday in many countries, including Ireland, to mark World AIDS Day.
The brunt of the toll taken by HIV/AIDS is borne by countries in the developing world, especially sub-Saharan Africa, where some countries are in danger of losing up to 10 per cent of their economically active population to the disease.
A total of 129,528 tests had been undertaken by the Virus Reference Laboratory in Dublin for HIV antibodies up to the end of August this year. Of these, 1,799 have tested positive - 46 of the positive tests took place between March and August this year.
The largest category of people who have tested positive are intravenous drug users (45 per cent), followed by homosexuals and bisexuals (23 per cent).
Father Sean Cassin of the Merchants' Quay Project, which has seen over 5,000 intravenous drug users since it opened in 1989, said there was a renewed need to inform young drug-users of how to avoid getting HIV.
A survey of first-time users of the project's needle-exchange programme showed an increase in high-risk behaviour, he said.
The survey, of 503 new clients over the six months up to October 31st, revealed that 30 per cent were teenagers and 35 per cent between 20 and 24. Seven per cent were between 16 and 18. Just over a quarter (26 per cent) were women.
In terms of high-risk behaviour, more than half reported sharing injecting equipment or other paraphernalia at some time in their injecting careers. This rose to 75 per cent among those under 18.
Most attenders had been sexually active in the previous three months, a quarter of them with more than one partner. Only 30 per cent reported always using a condom.
Father Cassin told The Irish Times that the needle exchange service was seeing a large number of people who travelled in from Wicklow, highlighting the need for the Eastern Health Board to provide a needle-exchange centre there.
The fact that many AIDS sufferers were living longer due to the new triple-drug therapy seemed to have taken some of the urgency out of media attention, Mr Tony Geoghegan of the Merchant's Quay Project said. However, this required stability and discipline usually absent from drug-users' lives.