HIV infections on the rise in Sweden: officials

STOCKHOLM (AFP) — The number of new HIV infections jumped 20 percent in Sweden last year, health officials said Tuesday, quoting preliminary figures that could signal altered attitudes towards the disease that causes AIDS.

In 2007, around 500 new HIV infections were reported in Sweden, up from some 390 new cases reported a year earlier, according to preliminary numbers published by the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control (SMI).

"We have especially seen an increase in the number of new infections among men who have sex with men and needle-users," SMI statistician Malin Arneborn told AFP, adding that Sweden was thus following a trend already seen in other European countries.

While a majority of new HIV patients registered in Sweden each year are infected abroad, SMI said the number of people infected inside the Scandinavian country had soared 70 percent last year.

"All sexually transmittable diseases are increasing. People ...