Three new cases of HIV have been diagnosed in Jersey this year

ACET said three new cases of HIV were diagnosed in Jersey in the first six weeks of this year.

It follows a 26% increase in diagnoses in the UK last year.

The charity says people aged between 20 and 30 are most at risk.

"There will be a huge cost to the island in the future if it does not take steps to prevent the spread of this virus Rosemary Ruddy, executive director ACET

Rosemary Ruddy, the executive director of ACET, said the island's government needs to put money into AIDS prevention programmes before it is too late.

"We are extremely concerned about the situation in Jersey," she said.

"We believe the situation in the UK is mirrored here, but sadly our politicians haven't yet recognised the issue.

"Though we have an island Sexual Health Strategy Group we have no budget in order to develop the initiatives which we think are extremely important at the moment."

She said it was hard to gather accurate and up-to-date statistics as many islanders leave Jersey for HIV testing.

"I feel any figures we have for Jersey are meaningless as they are not reflecting the true situation."

'Grasp nettle'

"It's difficult to say how much we should be investing but we should certainly be investing more than we are."

She added that the drugs to treat a person with Aids would cost up to �10,000 a year for each individual.

"There will be a huge cost to the island in the future if it does not take steps to prevent the spread of this virus.

"We need to grasp the nettle now, we cannot afford just to ignore it."