London - For the first time last year, the number of people in Britain who contracted HIV through heterosexual sex was higher than those infected through homosexual activity.
Figures released by the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) yesterday revealed that new diagnoses of the AIDS virus in 1999 were the highest for a decade.
Of 2,457 people diagnosed with HIV last year, 1,070 were infected through heterosexual, and 989 through homosexual, sex.