CASUAL attitudes towards sex among modern-day Irish people are contributing to a worrying rise in HIV infection, a health expert warned yesterday.
Prof Sam McConkey, head of the Department of International Health and Tropical Medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons, said 405 people were diagnosed with HIV last year, the highest number since records began in the 1980s.
New figures for the first six months of 2009 revealed that the trend was continuing, with 210 new cases diagnosed, compared to 212 during the same period of 2008.
The largest number of new cases up to June was among heterosexuals (82), followed by gay men (72) and intravenous drug users (18).
Speaking in advance of World AIDS Day, which is today, Prof McConkey, who treats HIV patients in Dublinās Beaumont Hospital, said he was extremely concerned at the rise and pointed to the contrasting fall in cases in African countries.
Several thousand people may currently be HIV positive and unaware of it but engaging in risky sexual behaviour.
He said factors such as unprotected sex, the rate of āpartner changeā and sexual activity among minors were contributing to the spread of the virus.
āAverage, normal peopleā who are not injecting drugs are being diagnosed with the disease, frequently having been positive for years and having slept with numerous partners.
Prof McConkey said couples about to embark on a physical relationship should first have a HIV test as a matter of routine.
What would worry me is lads coming back infected after making a pig of themselves on holiday in SE Asia or South America or somewhere. I got tested but it was an uneasy wait for those results I can tell you.
i thought you were going out with the same bird for years??..
also i donāt think pissing into the cup test for aidsā¦they take a blood sample for thatā¦other stiās can be detected by pissing into the cup but i didnāt think āhand grenadesā could beā¦
[quote=āscumpotā]i thought you were going out with the same bird for years??..
also i donāt think pissing into the cup test for aidsā¦they take a blood sample for thatā¦other stiās can be detected by pissing into the cup but i didnāt think āhand grenadesā could beā¦[/quote]
Yeah itās a blood test, I had one done today. Theyāre also checking me for syphilus too.
Yeah if youāre staying there more than six months. Chest x-ray too for TB. The doctor reckoned itās a money making scam. I havenāt heard of anyone with syphilus since the 19th century. As one of our resident historians, can you confirm the last case of syphilus in Ireland?
[quote=āscumpotā]i thought you were going out with the same bird for years??..
also i donāt think pissing into the cup test for aidsā¦they take a blood sample for thatā¦other stiās can be detected by pissing into the cup but i didnāt think āhand grenadesā could beā¦[/quote]
Clymidia or however you spell it can lie untested for years so felt it was the safer optionā¦
. i trust you have conducted some research into this matter.
No thank fuck. Have heard some horror stories bout that. Apparently your piss travels over the area that is infected. There was some crowd of people with piss cups going into Sainsburys. Extremely common to pick it up
