Croydon Health Authority has allocated £600,000 for treatment and care services for people with HIV or AIDS.

The extra cash will enable the number of HIV/AIDS specialist nurses to be doubled in the borough and mean more patients can be treated at home. Croydon is considered a medium prevalence district for HIV/AIDS with 104 deaths up to 1997. But there is a disproportionately high number of adults who acquire the disease hetrosexually and a significant number of children infected as a result.

More than 10 per cent has been earmarked to develop an HIV testing programme for pregnant woman at Mayday. It is expected the tests will reduce the number of HIV positive births.

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