Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/12/01
By: Chen Wei-ting and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Dec. 1 (CNA) An expert in infectious diseases said Tuesday that anybody who has The Centers for Disease Control lights up a giant red ribbon — symbol of awareness and support for people living with HIV — Monday night.

unprotected sex could be at risk of contracting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), citing figures showing a higher percentage of heterosexuals contracting the disease over the past year.

On World AIDS Day on Tuesday, Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Taiwan had recorded 2,134 new cases of HIV infection this year, with 85 percent resulting from sex among gay men, 10 percent coming through heterosexual sex and 3 percent resulting from drug injections.

The percentage attributed to sex between men was down from over 90 percent in recent years, said Hsieh Szu-min (謝思民), an attending physician in the section of infectious diseases of National Taiwan University Hospital, and people of all ages were affected.

“There is no longer a so-called high risk group for HIV/AIDS.” he said, “People can be infected as long as they have unprotected sex.”