HIV infection rate on the rise, conference told

The convenor of a major sexual health conference underway in Queensland says Australia's rate of HIV infection is slowly getting worse.

Dr Darren Russell says the trend is one of a number of issues that will be discussed at the Australasian Sexual Health Conference on the Gold Coast today.

Dr Russell, who is the director of Sexual Health at the Cairns Base Hospital, says about 20,000 Australians are HIV positive.

"I think Queensland, Victoria perhaps some other places in Australia really haven't grasped the nettle and as a result we are seeing rising numbers of HIV in Australia each year almost a thousand new cases of HIV.