MERSEYSIDE had 128 new cases of HIV in 2008. Figures show an increase in diagnoses across the North West.
There were 925 people newly diagnosed with HIV in 2008 – a rise on the 817 in 2007.
Lancashire saw 110 cases and Cheshire 71 cases and across the North West around 31% acquired their infection heterosexually and were of black African ethnicity and 44% acquired their infection through sex between men of white ethnicity.
The regional figures from the Health Protection Agency come ahead of World Aids Day tomorrow.
NEW advice to give anti-retroviral drugs to HIV patients earlier will present “an enor-mous challenge” to the international commu-nity, British minister Mike Foster warned.
The World Health Organisation is also recommending for the first time that breast feeding mothers or their babies take the drugs to prevent transmission of the disease.
