Researchers have found that Australia's mining boom is contributing to a concerning rise in HIV infections among wealthy heterosexual miners and businessmen in resource-rich states who travel to Asia for holidays. According to a recent national HIV-AIDS report, rates of HIV infections in Australia have increased by nearly 50 percent in the last eight years. The report, released by the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, revealed that in the year leading up to December 2007, Australia had 27,331 cases of HIV infection and 10,230 cases of AIDS. While homosexual men still make up the majority of new infections, a significant number of new cases are now being seen among heterosexual men in the mining states of Western Australia and Queensland. Many miners have a schedule where they work for several weeks in a row, followed by a few weeks off. Researchers have found that some of these miners are traveling to Asia during their time off, and engaging in risky behavior such as unprotected sex. Don Baxter, executive director of the Australian Federation of AIDS, stated that a notable number of new infections are among heterosexual men from wealthy resource states who are vacationing in Asia. Baxter mentioned that men from Western Australia are likely visiting Southeast Asian countries, while those from Queensland are traveling to Papua New Guinea, which is at risk of an HIV-AIDS epidemic. He noted that there has been a significant increase in infections among heterosexual males in Western Australia in recent years. Baxter mentioned that the Western Australia state government and AIDS council were collaborating with mining companies to introduce safe sex education programs for miners. Health authorities revealed on Wednesday that a group of men in Cairns, Queensland had contracted HIV after engaging in unprotected sex with women in Papua New Guinea, located north of Queensland. Six businessmen between the ages of 47 and 66 tested positive for HIV in the past 10 months at the Cairns Sexual Health Service. Dr. Darren Russell, the director of the service, expressed concern that this small cluster of cases could be the start of a larger outbreak, as the HIV epidemic in Papua New Guinea is spreading more widely. Australia's AIDS federation is urging the government to boost funding for AIDS prevention programs in order to address the increasing rate of infections. According to Baxter, New South Wales, which has a large homosexual population centered in Sydney, has seen minimal change in infection rates over the past ten years due to sustained funding for safe sex programs. On the other hand, infection rates have spiked in states that have cut back on funding, such as Victoria with a 131 percent increase and Queensland with a 55 percent rise. Baxter emphasized that investing in these programs has been shown to at least stabilize the rate of HIV infections.