KHUJAND, July 27, 2010, Asia-Plus — The number of people living with HIV is increasing in the northern Sughd province.
66 new cases of HIV infection have been registered in the province over the first six months of this year, bringing the total number of officially registered HIV sufferers in the area to 498, including 362 men and 136 women, according to the Sughd counternarcotics directorate.
The majority of HIV sufferers in Sughd are people aged 30 to 39. “The injecting drug users (IDUs) constitute 50.5 percent (209 people) of the overall number of the officially registered HIV suffers in northern Tajikistan,” said the source, “138 people, or 27.7 percent, contracted the infection through sexual contacts, 10 people, or 2 percent, contracted the HIV infection through blood transfusions or through mother-to-child transmission, and in 141 cases (28.3 percent), the cause of the infection is unknown.”
140 of the officially registered HIV sufferers live in Khujand, 50 live in Panjakent, 79 in Isfara, 52 in Chkalovsk, 23 in Mastchoh district, and 41 in Bobojonghafurov district, the source added.
