Almost 2500 test positive for HIV in city

NEARLY 2500 people in Edinburgh have been infected with HIV since health agencies began monitoring the disease in the 1980s.

The figures, which were released yesterday, revealed 92 people tested positive last year, an increase from 2009 though not as high as some previous years.

Gay men are still the most likely to be infected by the illness, though heterosexual men are increasingly at risk, which has prompted warnings from sexual health organisations.

Injecting drug users, who were the face of the HIV epidemic of the 1980s, barely account for any new cases thanks to awareness and needle exchange programmes.

Experts said a complacency among Edinburgh's homosexual community towards condoms was worsening the situation.

This has been put down to the fact that medical advances have allowed HIV to become an illness where life expectancy is not heavily impacted, and quality of life can be retained with the correct medication and early intervention.

The statistics were released by Health Protection Scotland.