"More people in the UK contracted HIV through heterosexual sex rather than homosexual activity for the first time last year. The number of diagnoses of heterosexually-acquired HIV - 1,070 - in 1999 was higher than the 989 infections acquired through sex between men.
The decline in people dying from HIV and Aids in the UK appears to have stopped, triggering warnings against complacency from Aids charities.
Figures collected by the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) show more people died of HIV and Aids last year than in 1998, reversing a trend of lower death rates since the introduction of combination therapies.
Last year is also set to show the highest number of new diagnoses of HIV in the 1990s - the PHLS has already received reports of 2,457 new HIV diagnoses in 1999 and expects to be told of many more in the coming months.
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A spokesman for the Health Education Authority said: "The most recent research we have done among the heterosexual community shows that people sometimes do not appreciate that there is a very real risk of HIV transmission."
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It is estimated that 30,000 people in Britain have HIV, of whom a third do not know they are infected.
Farinata.
