A CONSULTANT in sexually transmitted diseases has expressed concern at the 25 per cent increase in HIV cases in Cork and Kerry over the past 12 months and has urged people to ensure they practice safe sex.
Dr Mary Horgan, consultant physician in infectious diseases with HSE South, said people should be aware there were several hundred people with HIV in Cork and Kerry and practising safe sex in the region was just as important as in larger urban centres.
According to Dr Horgan, the number of reported cases of HIV has continued to rise in Cork and Kerry in recent years, increasing from 49 in 2004 to 58 in 2007 – but last year saw the greatest increase with a rise of more than 25 per cent to 80.
She said this represented a very worrying trend.
Dr Horgan said the number of people acquiring HIV from intravenous drug use in Cork and Kerry was small, with the majority of cases of people testing positive for HIV attributing the disease to unprotected sexual activity.
Those infected with the virus were predominantly in the 20-50 age group and, in contrast to increases in the early years of the decade when foreign nationals accounted for substantial growth, the rise in recent times was due to increased incidence among Irish people, she said.
“The safer sex message needs to be hammered home again,” said Dr Horgan, adding the majority of people with HIV exhibit no symptoms. Therefore, screening was important for anyone who may have had unprotected sex with somebody whose history they didn’t know.
Early screening for HIV was important not just for the patient themselves in terms of preventing them from going on to develop full-blown Aids, but also to ensure that they didn’t transmit the disease to others, she said.
“While we can treat HIV very effectively, there is no cure, once you have it, you keep it for life. Because the treatments now are so much better than they were years ago, there is a false perception out there that it is not such a dangerous thing.
“We get up to a 20 per cent increase in cases after the holidays. When people go on holiday, they sometimes engage in risky behaviour they would not normally engage in,” she said
According to Dr Horgan, women account for 33 per cent of those presenting with HIV at the STI clinics at the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital in Cork and at Kerry General Hospital, with homosexual and bisexual men accounting for the majority of the remainder.
“The real message to be driven home is that HIV can be prevented simply by using a condom,” said Dr Horgan who said the STI clinics in Cork and Kerry see 2,500-3,000 new patients each year for all types of sexually transmitted infections.
Anyone seeking information on STIs or who wishes to make an appointment for screening can do so by contacting 021-4966844.
