Sex between men and women accounted for almost a quarter of HIV infections
in Britain last year, compared with only 4 per cent in 1986, say government
figures. In most cases, the infected person鈥檚 sexual partner was outside
Britain. About 1 in 10 cases is 鈥榟omegrown鈥�, with a partner in Britain who
was also infected heterosexually.
In an editorial in the British Medical Journal this week, Anne Johnson
from University College and Middlesex School of Medicine says that though
numbers remain small, the number of 鈥榟omegrown鈥� heterosexual infections
has risen consistently each year. Future patterns are uncertain, she says;
15th-century epidemiologists did not predict the 鈥榙evastating鈥� effects of
syphilis in subsequent centuries.
