KHUJAND, December 11, 2014, 2014, Asia-Plus — The number of HIV sufferers is increasing in the northern Sughd province.
“222 new cases of HIV infection have been detected in Sughd over the first eleven months of this year, bringing a total number of HIV sufferers in the area to 1,284,” an official source at the Sughd AIDS Center told Asia-Plus in an interview.
Of 222 HIV sufferers reported in the province this year, 122 are men and 100 are women, the source noted.
In January-November last year, 150 new cases of HIV infection (83 men and 67 women) were detected in the province.
Of 1,284 HIV sufferers officially registered in Sughd, 858 are men and 426 women, including 53 minors.
The majority of HIV suffers in Sughd are people aged 30 to 39 (44 percent).
557 HIV sufferers, or 43.2 percent, are injecting drug users; 652 HIV suffers, or 50.8 percent, have contracted the infection through sexual activity; 41 HIV sufferers, or 3.3 percent, have been infected through mother-to-child transmission; and the cause of the infection is unknown in 29 cases (2.3 percent).
The first case of HIV infection was registered in Sughd in 2001 and 327 HIV sufferers have died since that time.
