Portugal has the highest rate of HIV infection in the EU, and is the only nation in the 15-member bloc where rates of infection are rising, the National Statistics Institute in Lisbon said last week. The institute said there were 104.2 HIV cases per one million Portuguese residents in 2000, compared with 88.3 cases in 1999. The EU average is just under 25 HIV cases per one million residents. The number of Portugal's AIDS cases has risen every year since its first recorded case in 1983. "I believe HIV infection rates may be stagnating, but are not yet declining," said the national coordinator of the fight against AIDS, Fernando Ventura, at an AIDS conference in Porto earlier this month. Health officials say drug injection is the main source of HIV infection in Portugal. Some 4,600 people have died of AIDS in Portugal since 1983, according to the National Commission Against AIDS.

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