Aug 30, Colombo: Sri Lanka Health Ministry said the amount of money it spends on HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns has increased by 20 percent last year when compared to the amount spent in 2006.

Health Ministry reported that it has spent 1.44 millions rupees on AIDS prevention programs last year and more island wide programs are already underway to increase public awareness.

According to the Health Ministry statistics the number of reported HIV/AIDS cases has increased by 70 in the year 2007.

The joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS, estimates that about 3,800 Sri Lankans were living with HIV at the end of 2007. As of December 2007, 957 cases of HIV, an increase of 71 cases since June 2007, have been reported in the country. Out of these 177 have died.

UNAIDS says that sixty percent of reported HIV cases are males, and more than half are from Colombo and 95 percent have acquired the disease through sexual transmission. The proportion of women infected with HIV has been rising, from 21 percent during a four year period from 1987-1991 to 42 percent in 2007, worrying health officials.

UNAIDS stresses that the focus of HIV prevention programs should be at the most-at-risk populations like female sex workers. If these groups are not adequately addressed, Sri Lanka will be vulnerable to an increase in HIV infections, the agency warns.