§ Mr. Frank FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what his latest assessment of the numbers of cases of AIDS and of people with HIV infection and of the extent to which the AIDS virus is spreading in the population generally in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. Newton[holding answer 7 March 1988]: To the end of February 1988, the total number of reported cases of AIDS in the United Kingdom was 1,344. To the end of December 1987, the total of reported HIV-antibody positive persons was 8,016, but it is likely that the true number of people infected with HIV is considerably greater. Consideration of the risk behaviour groups of people reported as antibody positive shows that the great majority are male homosexuals or bisexuals or injecting drug misusers, but in about 5 per cent. of the cases, the infection is thought to have been acquired heterosexually.