Below are charts showing patients notified to NSW Health with a particular infectious disease. The first graph show the number and rate per 100,000 population of patients notified each year from 1981 to 2013. The second chart shows the gender of patients notified in 2013.
Name the infectious disease …
Answer
The disease is HIV infection. HIV infection is mainly transmitted through sexual fluids and blood. In NSW in 2013, most cases were notified among men who reported having sex with men (74.6%). A further 3.7% were among men reported both sex with men and injecting drugs. People who reported heterosexual sex as their only risk factor was the next largest group (17.2%), followed by people who reported injecting drugs as their only risk (2.5%). See: http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/hiv/Documents/HIV-notifications-1981-2014.pdf