KULOB, November 24, 2008, Asia-Plus — Five new cases of HIV detected in Khatlon’s Kulob region in November have brought a total number of officially registered HIV sufferers in the region to 175, Kulob AIDS Center # 2 director Tohir Tumonov said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
Of the new five cases, three have been detected in the Hamadoni district and two others have been detected in the city of Kulob.
Tumonov said that the age group 35-49 years accounted for an estimated 53% of HIV diagnoses in the region, and the age group 20-29 years accounted for 30 percent.
Injecting drug users (IDUs) constitute 65 percent of the HIV sufferers officially registered in the Kulob region.
The first eight cases of HIV were registered in Khatlon’s Kulob region in 2003. In 2007, 48 new cases of the infection were registered in the region. The HIV-infection cases have been reported in eight of ten districts of the region and 138 of them have been registered in the city and the district of Kulob.
