The Swedish Institute of Infectious Disease Control (SMI) has published preliminary data showing new HIV cases in Sweden have risen 20% from 2007. While the majority of new HIV patients registered in Sweden each year are infected abroad, SMI stated the number of infected inside Sweden had increased a whopping 70%.

“We have an ongoing epidemic among needle users in Stockholm. They have been infected by a virus strain that originated in Finland. It possibly began spreading in 2006, but the increase only became evident in 2007,” SMI said in a statement reported by Google.com.

The increase in infections gives indications that people are less worried about contracting HIV than they were in the past. This is possibly due to early thoughts that AIDS would quickly spread in the 80s. New medicines are decreasing the chance to contract AIDS. However, risky sexual behavior and casual sex without a condom have greatly increased over the years.

On a positive note medical researcher Claes Herlitz, who has been tracking Swedish attitudes towards HIV since the late 80s  said,  “people with HIV are less stigmatized today and most people are no longer afraid of having contact with them.”

Hopefully people will take this as a reminder that HIV is on the rise all over the planet.

Sources: Google.com, Kaisernetwork.org, Medicalnewstoday.com, News.Yahoo.com

Categories: News
Tags: features