A report by the federal Health Department, to be published today in the Canadian Journal on Human Sexuality, has found that the incidence of AIDS attributable to men having sex with men jumped in the year 2000 to 664 individuals, up about 14 per cent from the 584 who were diagnosed in 1999. The increase is the first one since 1993, when information campaigns and preventative measures began to grip the gay community, bringing down the rate.

The high point of AIDS incidences in gay males in Canada was 1993, when 1,859 individuals were living with the disease.

In separate studies, the department is also expressing concern about the prevalence of AIDS in the native community after finding that the disease is far more prevalent among natives than it is among the Canadian population as a whole.

"We have seen the epidemic move into new populations, and we are seeing it again in populations where rates had declined," Health Minister Allan Rock said in a statement releasing the studies.

In the study of gay and bisexual men, culled from several separate surveys done at centres across Canada, the department found that rates of HIV infection have risen dramatically in some urban centres, including Vancouver.

In that city, officials found an HIV infection rate of 3.7 in every 100 males in the year 2000, compared with a rate of 0.6 for every 100 males surveyed from 1995 to 1999.

Other data show the rates in Ontario are also on the rise.

HIV testing at counselling sites in the province found the rate of new HIV infections increased from .86 infections in 100 individuals in 1996 to 2.56 in 1999.

In Toronto, the increases in the study were greatest among gay men aged 25 to 44 years.

Christopher Archibald, of the Health Department's Centre for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, pointed to other studies showing many gay men are not as diligent at using condoms and other preventative measures as they were in previous years.

For example, Vancouver officials found earlier this year that 27 per cent of a group of gay men who had been practising safe sex reported engaging in anal intercourse without a condom on one or more occasions after having started the study. The study suggests that gay men may be less concerned about safe sex because recent AIDS treatments have significantly lengthened life expectancy.

Dr. Archibald also said the country must pay closer attention to the rates in the native community. He noted that while natives make up just 2.8 per cent of the Canadian population they account for 5.5 per cent of HIV infections. Of those infected with AIDS in 1999, natives counted for 8.8 per cent of new cases.