DUSHANBE, September 22, 2010, Asia-Plus — The number of HIV sufferers in Tajikistan is increasing from year to year, Deputy Health Minister, Ms. Saida Jobirova, told reporters in Dushanbe on September 21.
According to her, the number of women living with HIV in Tajikistan has reached 458 (21 percent of the overall number of officially registered HIV sufferers in the country). 137 of them are expecting babies.
“Women in Tajikistan have begun to undergo HIV more frequently in recent years, and as a result, the HIV case detection rate has increased considerably,” the deputy minister said.
According to the statistical data from the Republican AIDS Center, 2,204 HIV sufferers have been officially registered in the country to this day. Injecting drug users (IDUs) constitute 55.2 percent of the overall number of the officially registered HIV sufferers in Tajikistan and 28.1 percent of the officially registered HIV sufferers have contracted the infection through sexual transmission.
The largest number of people living with HIV has been registered in Dushanbe – 856 people. 485 HIV sufferers have been registered in Sughd province, 430 in Khatlon province, 275 in districts subordinate to the center, and 158 in Gorno Badakhshan.
Jobirova named shortage of specialists, low-level prevention measures and poor public awareness of HIV/AIDS as factors contributing to increase in the number of HIV sufferers in the country. Labor migration has also contributed to HIV spread in Tajikistan, she added.
