DUSHANBE, November 2, 2009, Asia-Plus — 318 new cases of HIV infection have been detected in Tajikistan since the beginning of this year, bringing the total number of people living with HIV in Tajikistan to 1,740, including 1,288 men and 352 women, according to the Ministry of Health.
The source at a MoH noted that injecting drug users remained the most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, constituting 54 percent (940 people) of the overall number of the officially registered HIV sufferers in the country. 478 people have contracted the disease through sexual contacts – 27.5 percent of the total number of the HIV sufferers in Tajikistan.
The source added 101 of the officially registered HIV-infected people in the country were pregnant women. “55 of these HIV-infected pregnant women have been undergone medical treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission (MTCT),” the source said.
MTCT is when an HIV-infected woman passes the virus to her baby. This can occur during pregnancy, labor and delivery, or breastfeeding. 18 MTCT cases have been registered in Tajikistan so far.
In the territorial cross section the official figures of HIV cases are: Dushanbe – 624 cases; Sughd – 420 cases; Khatlon – 332 cases; Gorno Badakhshan – 123 cases; and districts subordinate to the center (RRPs) – 221 cases.
The first HIV infection case was registered in Tajikistan in 1991,
