Sexually active young men and women have been warned against complacency regarding the risk of HIV following a 12 per cent rise in new infections with the virus in the first six months of the year.
A total of 161 new cases of HIV were reported in the period January to June 2001, with the majority (56.5 per cent) of infections among heterosexuals.
This compares to 144 new cases in the same period in 2000, only 34 per cent of which were among heterosexuals.
Dr Mary Cronin, a public health specialist with the National Disease Surveillance Centre (NDSC), which published the figures yesterday, said they should be seen in the context of a rise in the incidence of other sexually transmitted diseases in the State. "There is evidence that a significant proportion of young people are having sex earlier and without adequate protection," she said.
"We cannot afford to become complacent about safer sex. The basic prevention messages remain the same: use a condom when having sex with a new or casual partner and, in the case of injecting drug use, never share injecting equipment. "
Responding to the figures, Mr Patrick Connolly, chief executive of the HIV prevention organisation Cβirde, said Ireland was now experiencing a far higher rate of infection than it did at the height of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.
He said there was a particular need to "grasp the nettle" of HIV infection among asylum-seekers and ethnic minorities. "At the moment, there is a reluctance to talk about it, let alone tackle it."
Mr Connolly said he had information to suggest that at least half of new cases of HIV in Dublin were among ethnic minorities.
The NDSC said it was unable to gauge the extent of such infections at present. Yesterday's figures also show there were four new cases of AIDS, and one AIDS death, reported in Ireland during the first six months of the year.
Regarding HIV, after heterosexuals, gay men accounted for the next largest group of infections (25.5 per cent). They were followed by intravenous drug users (16.8 per cent).
There was one new case of an infection in a child, and another in a transfusion patient who received contaminated blood overseas.
The new cases bring to 2,507 the total number of HIV infections reported in Ireland since 1981.
