COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Missouri is seeing a dramatic uptick in HIV diagnoses, a trend that is mostly concentrated in the central part of the state, according to health experts.

New HIV diagnoses in Missouri increased by more than 10 percent between 2013 and 2016, which is the most recent state data available. But the increase was much steeper in the 40 central counties that the state considers part of the Central HIV Care Region, with new HIV diagnoses climbing by nearly 170 percent during that same period, the Columbia Missourian reported.

Almost all of those cases occurred through sexual trans...