Women and children in HIV count of 108

About a quarter of the people diagnosed HIV positive so far this year are women and children.

The Aids Epidemiology Group at Otago University says of the 108 HIV positive cases to the end of September, 23 were women and four were children.

The children were infected through being born to an infected mother.

Key health groups working in the Aids area said today there was no room for complacency about HIV and AIDS - especially among women and children.

Fifty of this year's cases involved men who had sex with men, and 36 of them are thought to have been infected in New Zealand.

Of the rest, 46 (23 men and 23 women) were infected by heterosexual contact.