'Record-breaking numbers' of HIV cases recorded in Hong Kong as gay men still at highest risk, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post said on Tuesday.

The newspaper report follows a press meeting organised by the Department of Health on the same day. 

Consultant for the Health Department’s special preventive programme Dr Wong Ka-hing revealed that the department recorded a total of 153, of which 125 are men, new cases in the third quarter this year. Around half (70 homosexual, 8 bisexual) of the new HIV cases are suspected to have been acquired through gay or bisexual sex, less than a quarter (34) through heterosexual sex and two of the cases through drug injections. The causes of the rest of the infections were unknown or inconclusive.

Source: Hong Kong Department of Health. To download the report, click here.

Dr Wong was quoted in the SCMP report as saying that the rates are the highest among the MSM (men having sex with men) community. He predicts that the numbers this year will surpass last year's as they have documented record-breaking numbers each quarter this year.

In March, the health department reported that new MSM HIV infection rates in Hong Kong have been the highest in 30 years.

A 2011 ad by the Department of Health's AIDS Unit that features a gay hook-up.