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SAN FRANCISCO — Paul Torello is upfront about his life. He sells sex on the streets for drug money, and he’s HIV positive. It’s a story he tells all of his male clients before he lets them chose whether to proceed with or without a condom. 

But more often than not, his words have little effect. 

“It’s sex that they really want to have,” Torello said. “That’s primarily the attitude in the city. It’s a fun thing for them.” 

That attitude is partly responsible for an alarming new report released Wednesday that finds the HIV infection rate has more than doubled among San Francisco’s gay men in four years. 

The report estimates that 2.2 percent of San Francisco’s gay men will contract the virus — up from 1.04 percent in 1997. If nothing changes, 748 gay men in San Francisco will fall prey to HIV this year, the report projects. 

That draft analysis, released Wednesday, combines more than 25 studies by the University of California, San Francisco, that surveyed some 10,000 gay men. 

“We’ve been at this for 20 or 21 years, and people are tired of it,” said Dr. Tom Coates, director of the UCSF Aids Research Institute and one of two dozen researchers and experts on the panel that released the report. “People would rather not have to talk about difficult issues and not take precautions if they think there’s a form of chemicals available to help them.” 

Indeed, the new antiviral drugs responsible for extending the lives of many HIV patients may big the biggest catalyst driving up the incidence rate of new infections. 

Long life spans make it possible for victims to spread the virus to more people, said Mike Shriver, Mayor Willie Brown’s adviser on AIDS and HIV policy and an organizer of the research panel. In addition, he said, the drugs – first released in the mid-1990s – have eased the horror of watching loved ones die a slow, agonizing death. 

“Why is it going up among men having sex among men?” said Coates, who’s been HIV-positive since 1985. “The whole idea of gay liberation is having sex with whom you want to have sex. It’s breaking down old moralistic barriers. But it carries with it something lethal, and it’s hard for the gay community to come to grips with.” 

Coates said he’s seen a 50 percent decrease in HIV rates among intravenous drug users. He also hasn’t seen any increases in the heterosexual population. 

Yet a quarter of the city’s estimated 46,800 gay men are HIV-positive. And 80 percent of HIV infections in the city are among gay men, the study found. 

That means stories like Torello’s aren’t uncommon. 

A native of Hamden, Conn., Torello, 36, came to San Francisco three years ago and contracted HIV in the past 18 months. He was sharing dirty needles to shoot-up speed and having unprotected sex with whomever would pay. He’s not sure how he contracted the virus. 

Still, he continues to prostitute himself. 

“Every person who I ever hook up with, I tell them. Always,” said Torello. “But I’ve only been turned down once or twice.” 

The increase isn’t unique to San Francisco. Coates said numbers are on the rise in Sydney and Vancouver. In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta reports an increase in syphilis and gonorrhea among gay males in Los Angeles, Miami and Seattle. 

“We’re definitely concerned about gay men across the county,” said Robert Janssen, the CDC’s director of the division of HIV/AIDS prevention. “We’re pulling together and have begun to look at a variety of ways to improve intervention and prevention programs for gay men and to begin to look at specific things we need to do.” 

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On the Net: 

http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu