Official figures showing an apparent tenfold increase in the numbers of people developing AIDS this year may be due to late reporting, a Department of Health spokesman acknowledged last night.
Figures released yesterday show 32 new cases of AIDS were reported between December 31st, 1998, and May 31st, 1999, compared to only three in the previous six months.
But a spokesman for the Department of Health acknowledged last night that the sharp rise in the AIDS figures may be a result of late reporting of cases from the previous six-month period, and the Department's statistics were "playing catch-up".
Almost 50 per cent of the new cases reported were intravenous drug-users while the number of homosexuals and bisexuals who contracted AIDS was similar to that of heterosexuals, at 8 per cent and 7 per cent respectively.
However, Mr Paddy Connolly, director of the Irish AIDS support group CAIRDE, said there was evidence to suggest that the younger drug-user, who had previously smoked heroin, was now injecting the drug, with the result that they were sharing needles with older addicts suffering from HIV/AIDS.
He said the new figures underlined the need for increasing HIV/ AIDS awareness, especially among intravenous drug-users, and he urged the National Drug Strategy Team to take on the issue. "The reality is that the HIV and AIDS figures are continuing to increase as the level of awareness around HIV is going into decline," he said.
Twelve deaths from AIDS-related illnesses were recorded in the first five months of the year, bringing the total number of deaths from AIDS in the Republic to 344. This is almost 50 per cent of the 682 AIDS cases reported so far.
In contrast to the AIDS figures the number of people testing positive with HIV remained relatively stable, rising from 74 cases in the last six months of 1998 to 76 in the first five months of 1999.
The majority of these were in the Eastern Health Board region, which accounted for 59 cases.
Intravenous drug-users made up 30 of the new cases, 20 were heterosexual, nine were homosexual, seven were prisoners, four were children, one was a blood donor and five were unspecified.
The number of people in the Republic who have tested positive for HIV antibodies up to the end of May 1999 stands at 2,062.