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The Health Protection Surveillance
Center has released new research showing that 30 percent of Ireland residents
with HIV do not know they are infected. “The public needs to know that by avoiding
early HIV testing, you put yourself at risk of rapid disease progression,” said
Dr. Jack Lambert, infectious-disease consultant at Mater Hospital.
Since the early 1980s, 6,287 people
in Ireland have been diagnosed with HIV. The overall HIV diagnosis rate dipped
by 3 percent in 2011, but more than half of the 320 people testing positive
presented late in the course of their disease.
Among the 85 women diagnosed with
HIV, 27 percent were pregnant. Men who have sex with men represented the
largest proportion of new patients (42.5 percent), while one-third were
heterosexual men and women, and 5 percent were injecting drug users.
A new campaign, “Don’t Guess, Get
Tested,” will be launched Friday by Open Heart House, the Sexual Health Center,
AIDS West, Dublin AIDS Alliance and the Red Ribbon Project.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
