"No. of HIV-infected, AIDS patients in Japan hits record high in 2008"

From today's Japan Today:

The number of people newly infected with the HIV virus and those who contracted AIDS in Japan in 2008 totaled 1,545, marking an all-time high for the sixth straight year, the health ministry said in a report released Wednesday. Of the 1,113 newly HIV-positive people and 432 AIDS patients, 1,442 were male, according to the report compiled by the AIDS Trend Committee of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

Read the whole article:
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/no-of-hiv-infected-aids-patients-in-japan-hits-record-high-in-2008

Another timely reminder as its been a while since VAOJ has addressed this serious issue. Of course the number cited in the article is low as most cases of HIV/AIDS go untested or unreported. The article also cites statistics claiming that the majority of new cases of HIV are due to male-male sexual contact. This is absolutely ridiculous and goes against the majority of research on the HIV/AIDS situation in Japan and the rest of the world. It is another example of scapegoating a particular population rather than doing anything constructive about the problem.

Japan is one of the few so-called wealthy, developed countries where HIV/AIDS continues to rise at alarming rates. Protect yourself. Spread the word, not the disease.