Scots Face Danger of Second HIV Epidemic

New figures from the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health show that the country is heading for its highest annual total of HIV cases since the 1980s. Figures for the first six months of the year show there have been 91 new cases of HIV in Scotland. The total for the remainder of the year is expected to exceed 200 -- the highest since 1987. Figures for the last nine months show that more cases have been contracted through heterosexual sex than homosexual sex.

"While we may have been successful in containing the first wave of HIV, the stage is set for a second wave in Scotland, and unless we step up our efforts to educate the public, we will not avoid it," said Dr. Jamie Inglis, public health medicine consultant at the Health Education Board for Scotland. "HIV infection has never gone away, and is in danger of coming back with increased vigor."

Calling the new figures "alarming," shadow health minister Nicola Sturgeon said, "The war against HIV/AIDS has not been won. We have become complacent as a society over the last few years, thinking that the risks are not high, or that if we contract HIV there is treatment, which means it is not life-threatening. But a lot of the combination treatments are not as effective against the new strains of HIV as they once were."

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