HIV infections
rise in Germany

Germany has reported a sharp rise in HIV infections so far this year, with a rise of about 20% in new cases in the first six months of the year as compared with the same period in 2004, Agence France-Presse reports. The country has registered 1,164 new HIV cases in the first half of the year, mostly among gay men between the ages of 25 and 45. Most of the new cases were clustered in such large urban centers as Berlin, Cologne, and Hamburg.

"The rise in these avoidable infections is worrying," Reinhardt Kurth, the head of the Robert Koch Institute, told the news agency. "We must tell people that despite the appearance of more efficient treatment, AIDS cannot be healed."

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS this week reported that HIV infection rates are rising throughout Western Europe, particularly in some of the former Soviet republics that joined the European Union last year. (Advocate.com)