A senior councillor today questioned whether dispersing asylum seekers to towns like Southend could be to blame for increases in HIV cases.

Verina Weaver, Southend executive councillor for health, spoke after a study said doctors feared the dispersal of asylum seekers around the UK could increase the spread of HIV.

Number of new patients with HIV seen at Southend Hospital increased fivefold between 1999 and 2003.

Published Monday August 9, 2004

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