Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) -- New cases of HIV in Australia rose by almost 50 percent in the past eight years, as gay men and immigrants infected overseas spurred the number of people with the virus to a 14-year high.

The number of new infections increased to 1,051 in 2007 from 718 in 1999, and are at the highest level since 1993, according to the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research annual surveillance report today. Almost 70 percent of cases in the five years through 2007 were among gay and bisexual men.

The report shows HIV infections in Australia following a similar pattern to other developed nations such as Germany and the U.S., where the virus is spreading amid concerns young gay men are neglecting safe-sex messages and no longer see HIV as a death sentence.

``No health promotion message is a static one. It might have an impact for people at one point in time, and then has to be sustained,'' said John Kaldor, who helped lead the research, in a phone interview from Perth yesterday.

The study also showed that among newly-reported cases last year, one in 10 were diagnosed overseas, and the rate of infection was five times higher among people born in sub-Saharan Africa than those born in Australia. About 60 percent of new infections from heterosexual sex were in people from countries with high HIV prevalence or their partners, the report showed.

About 85 people in every 100,000 had HIV in Australia last year, compared with 127 per 100,000 in the U.K. and 327 in the U.S., the report said.

Chlamydia was the most frequently reported sexually- transmitted infection in 2007. The rate of new infections quadrupled to 199 cases per 100,000 people last year from about 47 in 1998. Cases of infectious syphilis more than doubled to 6.6 per 100,000 last year from 3.1 in 2004.

New HIV cases among gay and bisexual men may climb 74 percent by 2015 in Victoria, the nation's second-most populous state, and by 20 percent in Queensland unless greater rates of unprotected sex are reversed, the center said in a report in March.

To contact the reporter on this story: Simeon Bennett in Singapore at sbennett9@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 16, 2008 11:01 EDT