Almost 87,000 Colombians caught HIV virus

There were 86,990 registered cases in Colombia of infection with HIV - the virus that destroys the human immune system and causes AIDS - between the first reported case in 1983 and the end of 2011, the health ministry stated on 1 December, World Aids Day. A ministry communiqué stated that 7,991 infections were for the year 2011 and 93 per cent of those had been through sexual intercourse, Spain's EFE reported. The greatest number of HIV infections that year occurred in Bogotá - 1,609 - while the age groups with most infections were of 25-29 and 30-34 years, with 17.98 and 16.46 per cent of all infections in Colombia. The agency cited an adviser to the ministry as stressing the need for a "community response" and collaborative actions by civic groups to help curb infections, beside the state's promotion of "official access to prevention" and assistance to infected individuals. The ministry stated that infections remained "concentrated" among "more vulnerable" groups, particularly men who had sex with men. Separately, police arrested on 1 December a truck driver who may have "recklessly" infected some 50 women with HIV over several years while knowing he was HIV-positive, El Tiempo reported on 3 December. The 57-year-old who was diagnosed with HIV in 2006, may be jailed for 72 months on the charge of acting against public health. Police said the "50 or more" women he may have infected during his "uncontrolled sexual life" included a 16-year-old virgin whom he raped in 2007. Apparently that encounter first brought him to police attention.