"In Bangkok, one in three gay men are HIV positive at present," Centre for Health Protection senior medical officer Raymond Ho Lei-ming said yesterday.

"In addition a number of western European cities are seeing double-digit prevalence of HIV infection among men who have sex with men."

Ho also said prevention and condom usage needs to be stepped up and that people at risk should seek testing.

Long the epicenter of sexually transmitted diseases in Southeast Asia, vigorous condom, education and anti-viral campaigns in the 1990s and early 2000s saw the Thai infection rate drop from 2 percent to just under 1.5.

ADVERTISEMENT

According to the 2008 United Nations acquired immune deficiency report, the current Thai infection rate is 1.4 percent with about 610,000 of its 65 million population living with HIV. AIDS deaths in 2007 were estimated at 31,000.

The center said it had received 121 reports of HIV infection during this year's second quarter, bringing the territory's cumulative number of reported HIV infection to 3,822 since record keeping started in 1984.

According to Ho, 98 of the new cases were male and 23 female, while 33 were infected through heterosexual contact, 33 through homosexual or bisexual contact, nine from shared needles and two from blood transfusions. The vector of infection for 44 was undetermined due to insufficient data.

Fifteen AIDS cases were reported during the same quarter, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 966. Ho said 65 of the new cases were already seeking treatment, adding half the remaining HIV-infected people could progress to AIDS within a decade if they went without treatment.

The chest infection pneumocystis pneumonia and mycobacterium tuberculosis were the most common AIDS-defining illnesses in the second quarter, Ho said.

AIDS Concern chief executive Loretta Wong Wai-kwan said the number of clinics providing care for people living with HIV and AIDS has remained unchanged in a decade.