Two religious organisations have raised concern at the rise in Human Immunodeficiency Virus cases.

Arya Pratindhi Sabha of Fiji president Kamlesh Arya called for compulsory HIV testing.

"The State must move towards legalising compulsory testing without fearing or fretting about human rights," he said.

"If we were to worry about human rights then we threaten the larger group.

"Testing would be the way to identify and isolate these people." AIDS is worse than leprosy and TB and if we found it right to isolate lepers and TB sufferers, then we should not shy away from isolating these people.

Minister for Curative Health Services Doctor Gunasagaran Gounder said international experience show that compulsory testing did not work.

"Positive testing will not be useful because it is a disease that hides and it takes a long time to identify," he said.

"The moment we talk about positive testing, people will go underground, the idea is to counsel and encourage people to come out for testing.

"Right now there is a stigma that we are trying to get rid of.

"The world trend shows that compulsory test will not work or eradicate HIV.''

Ministry of Health director public health, Doctor Timaima Tuiketei, on Friday said 29 confirmed HIV cases reported for the first nine months of this year was an indication that the number would increase further.

"There were 31 cases for 2003, 29 cases were reported in 2004 and 29 for 2005," she said.

"For the first nine months of this year, there have been 29 reported cases.

"As of September 30, a cumulative total of 229 HIV infections had been recorded in the country since 1989.

Mr Arya said he was shocked at the new cases and called on people to heed warnings from academic Dr Miliakere Kaitani.

"I'm shocked that we have new cases on hand. This means that while we have an increase of 29, my guess is that we have an increase of 3000 suspected cases," he said.

"The country must take heed of the academic's (Dr Kaitani) comment on men and sexuality.

"The sexual behaviour of our people has changed and has become promiscuous.

Dr Kaitani earlier said statistics over the past 20 years showed that more than 80 per cent of reported cases of sexually transmitted infection are to Fijian males and the highest proportion infected are those between the ages of 24-35.

Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat in Fiji national vice president Tahir Munshi said the new statistics were only the tip of the iceberg.

"The way the world is going instead of discouraging STIs, we are getting into a vicious cycle," he said.

"Religious organisations policy is abstinence and no sexual intercourse outside marriage.

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