Most People in United Kingdom Unaware of Rise in New HIV/AIDS Cases, Survey Says

Only 40% of people in the United Kingdom are aware that HIV/AIDS cases are increasing in the nation, according to a survey released yesterday by Children With AIDS, a not-for-profit group founded in 1992 to assist children with the disease, Reuters reports. The group surveyed 700 children and 300 parents and found that almost three-quarters of people surveyed do not know what AIDS stands for. Lesley Naylor of Children With AIDS said most parents are not "well informed" about the disease and are "reluctant" to discuss sexually transmitted diseases with their children. More than 60% of the parents surveyed said they had discussed smoking with their children, while 43% had discussed sex and only 22% had discussed STDs and AIDS. She added that the education system is "not filling in the gaps" and urged the government to increase funding for new HIV/AIDS public awareness campaigns. More than 33,000 people in the United Kingdom have HIV, but about 9,400 of them are not aware that they are HIV-positive, according to the Public Health Laboratory Service (Reaney, Reuters, 7/22).