Hong Kong recorded its highest-ever number of HIV infections in a single year, with 435 new cases recorded in 2008, up 5 percent from the previous year, the Department of Health announced yesterday.

It is the highest number of HIV infections since records began in 1984, it said, adding most of the new infections were the result of sexual contact.

Of the new cases, 145 resulted from homosexual relations, 131 from heterosexual contact, 40 from intravenous drug use and three from blood infusion.

Causes of the remaining infections are unknown, it said.

Wong Kah-hing, a consultant at the Centre for Health Protection's special preventive program agreed sexual transmission continued to be the major cause of the spread of the deadly virus in Hong Kong.

He urged people to practice safe sex and called on those who don't to undergo an HIV test.

"They (people) should use condoms to reduce the risk of contracting HIV," he said.

Figures from the Department of Health showed that during the fourth quarter of 2008, 106 people tested positive for HIV.

The cumulative total of reported HIV infections in Hong Kong since 1984 is 4,047.

HIV is the viral infection at the root of AIDS. About half of HIV-infected people progress to AIDS within 10 years if the condition is not treated.

Loretta Wong, chief executive of AIDS Concern, an organization that provides AIDS prevention services, said the high rate of HIV infection last year is a warning that AIDS prevention efforts in the past few years have proven "insufficient".

"Another reason for record-high number is that more people took the HIV test last year," she said.

The use of condoms to prevent the infection is still not popular among the gay and heterosexual population of Hong Kong, she said.

"Even though about 60 percent of the gay population uses condoms regularly, they are willing to take the risk if condoms are not in their immediate reach," she said.

To reduce the number of HIV infections, Wong said non-governmental organizations should increase AIDS prevention services.

"It's not easy. It will require more funds from the government to make the services stable and sustainable," she said.

(China Daily March 4, 2009)