DUSHANBE, March 19, 2010, Asia-Plus — The number HIV sufferers has reportedly increased from zero to 1,853 over the past twenty years, Ms. Zuhro Nourlyaminova, an official with the Republican AIDS Center, said, adding that the real number of HIV sufferers is much higher that the official shows and may reach 10,000.
According to her, 247 HIV-infected persons have died in the country since 1991, when the fist case of the HIV infection was officially registered in Tajikistan. “47 percent of them have died of tuberculosis, which is a leading cause of HIV-related deaths not only in Tajikistan but worldwide,” she said.
“The number of TB/HIV cases has increased in the country from 12 in 2004 to 209; 52 of them are undergoing antiretroviral therapy (ART),” Nourlyaminova said.
She noted that to prevent these cases in Tajikistan, a strategic plan of joint measures to prevent and control TB and combined HIV/TB cases had been developed for 2008-2012.
In the meantime, an official number of AIDS patients in Tajikistan is now 73, the AIDS Center official said.
On the age groups of people living with HIV in Tajikistan, Nourlyaminova noted that people aged 15 to 49 constitute more than 97 percent of HIV sufferers in the country and children under the age of 14 constitute 1.8 percent.
The majority of persons living with HIV in Tajikistan has been registered in Dushanbe – 710 people. In Sughd province, 428 HIV sufferers have been officially registered, in Khatlon province – 361, in districts subordinate to the center (RRPs) – 222 and in Gorno Badakhshan – 132.
1,482 out of the overall number of officially registered HIV sufferers in Tajikistan are men and 371 are women.
The rate of HIV among women in the country increased from 16.3 percent in2004 to 23.2 percent in 2009. Nourlyaminova noted that more than 60 percent of HIV-infected women contracted the virus through sexual contacts.
