The rate of HIV infection is rising dramatically in Manitoba among women and First Nations communities, according to a new report by Manitoba Health.

The proportion of newly diagnosed HIV cases among women has almost quadrupled in the past decade, compared with the previous one, the report says.

Of cases where the ethnicity of the patient is reported, one-third of all new infections were diagnosed in aboriginal people in the past seven years.

Dr. Pierre Plourde, medical officer of health for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, said one reason for the increase could be a change in attitude about HIV (the human immunodeficiency virus).

"We think that one of the reasons for that could be that HIV has now become seen as just a chronic condition that is manageable," he said.

"It's not the death sentence it used to be, and people's sexual behaviours are reflecting that now. There are much more risky sexual behaviours occurring in men and in women."

The trend for HIV infection on Manitoba First Nations appears to be mimicking the way infection has spread across sub-Saharan Africa, Plourde said.

Like sub-Saharan Africa

"If you look at the numbers among First Nations, the ratio of men-to-women cases is almost equal, which is more reflective of the type of dynamic that is seen in sub-Saharan Africa, suggesting similar forms of transmission, i.e. men and women transmitting it to one another through sexual means," he said.

Between 1985 and 1995, about 65 per cent of new HIV cases were believed to have been transmitted among men having sex with men, the report says, while reported heterosexual transmissions made up just nine per cent.

But in cases reported in the past decade, homosexual transmission cases had dropped to 18 per cent, while heterosexual transmission cases climbed to 32 per cent. Women accounted for a third of all new HIV cases in the past decade, compared with eight per cent in the previous one.

Other identified modes of transmission included intravenous drug use, infected blood products, exposure on the job or during birth, travel to endemic areas and unknown sources of exposure.

Of the cases over the past seven years in which ethnicity of the patient was reported, 32 per cent of patients said they were aboriginal, 27 per cent white, and 20 per cent black. 

The number of people infected with HIV in Manitoba is still very low compared with other countries, Plourde said, but Manitoba has one of the highest per-capita rates of HIV infection in Canada.

82 new cases in 2007

A total of 1,477 people in Manitoba tested positive for HIV between 1985 and the end of 2007, according to the report. Eighty-two new cases were reported in 2007.

More than 260 cases of AIDS have been reported since 1985, the report says; nearly three-quarters of them have died.

More than 80 per cent of all HIV cases were reported among residents of Winnipeg.

Positive HIV test results must, by law, be reported to provincial officials. AIDS cases and deaths are also reportable.

Last year, the provincial government made it possible for Manitobans to be tested anonymously for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, a move that was expected to encourage people who otherwise might not have been tested to do so.