§ Mr. HindTo ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he has any plans to publish statistics on the spread of AIDS in inner cities.
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyThe spread of the human immunodeficiency virus which is the cause of AIDS cart be 407W monitored through voluntary confidential reports on AIDS and HIV infection received by the Public Health Laboratory Service communicable disease surveillance centre. CDSC is currently analysing this by inner-city areas and such information should be available during the autumn of this year.
The first results from the anonymised HIV surveys, published on 17 May, indicated that the overall prevalence of HIV infection in women attending certain ante-natal clinics in inner London is one in 500. Among people attending certain sexually transmitted disease clinics in inner London prevalence is one in 500 among heterosexual women, one in 100 heterosexual men and one in five for homosexual-bisexual men. Further results will be published as they become available.