The number of HIV cases in Singapore hit a record in 2007 with 422 new infections recorded, the highest number in a single year since records started in 1985, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

“There is thus an urgent need for persons who engage in high risk behavior such as unprotected casual sex, sex with prostitutes, and intravenous drug abuse to go for regular HIV testing,” the ministry’s Web site said in an update of the HIV/AIDS situation in Singapore, the Associated Press reports.

About 93 percent of those infected were males, and most of the infections were transmitted through sex. Nearly two-thirds of the infections occurred through heterosexual sex, while there were seven cases from intravenous drug use and one through a blood transfusion overseas, the statistics showed.

The new cases boost the total number of known HIV-infected Singaporeans to 3,482 as of the end of last year, the ministry said, adding that more than 1,144 of them have died, 1,534 are asymptomatic carriers and 804 had AIDS-related illnesses.

More than half of the new cases were aged between 30 to 49 and had late-stage HIV infection when they were diagnosed.

The majority of the victims were Chinese (354 cases), followed by Malays (47 cases) and Indians (11 cases), and most of them were single males (230 cases) followed by married men (114 cases) and divorced or separated men (42 cases).

Singapore currently has laws that penalize anyone aware of being infected and failing to inform his partner about it before engaging into sexual intercourse. The ministry now announced that Parliament last week passed an amendment to the current laws to tighten regulations on HIV transmission. According to it, infected people must take “reasonable precautions” like using condoms and being tested to protect their sexual partner.

Anyone found guilty of breaking the laws faces a maximum penalty of a 50,000 Singapore dollar ($36,735) fine and 10 years’ imprisonment.