Recent conservative estimates suggest that at the end of 2002, 4.8 million people were living with HIV/AIDS in south Asia including 4.58 million in India.¹ In the United Kingdom there are estimated to be 1.5 million people of south Asian ethnicity. While the National Strategy for Sexual Health aims to improve health care in those who have HIV through earlier diagnosis,² studies have shown that that other ethnic minority groups present with advanced disease and not through routine genitourinary medicine (GUM) screening.^3,4 We studied the case notes of all adults self defining as of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, or Sri Lankan ethnicity diagnosed HIV positive from January 1985 to December 2002 attending four HIV treatment centres in London. Information was collected on demography, mode of …