Although around 51,000 people in Colombia were registered as being infected with the HIV virus, the number would reach 200,000 if it was counted by informal measures, Ricardo Garcia, the local representative of the United Nations AIDS Program, said on Monday.

"Many infected people do not know about their own situation and those that do know seek out individual doctors to avoid being found out," Garcia said, describing the situation as "worrying" to national radio station Caracol.

Garcia said that 21 percent of HIV carriers were aged between 15 and 24, and 30 percent were women. He added that the authorities had been surprised by an unexpected 3 percent rise in HIV in people aged over 50.

"In recent years this infection has been on the rise in this group, due to the boom in anti-impotence medication, which has led some of these people to seek sex with younger women and also with sex workers," Garcia said.

Colombia's Social Protection Minister Diego Palacio said that in 2006 and 2007 the Colombian government had budgeted 2.3 million U.S. dollars for HIV prevention and some 34.7 million for HIV medication.

Source: Xinhua