DUSHANBE, January 16, Asia-Plus  -- In 2007, 339 news cases of HIV infection were registered in Tajikistan and 10 newly registered HIV sufferers are prison inmates, Health Minister Ranokhon Abdurahmonova remarked at a news conference in Dushanbe on January 14.   

 The minister said that over the past sixteen years, the number of HIV sufferers has increased from zero to 1,049, including 850 men and 199 women.  The first case of HIV infection was registered in Tajikistan in 1991. 

Ms. Abdurahmonova noted that injecting drug users constitute 59.2 percent (621 people) of a total number of officially registered HIV sufferers in the country.  226 people (21.5 percent) contracted the virus through sexual contacts, and in eight cases, babies contracted HIV from their mothers, according to her.          

She also added that 28 AIDS sufferers had been registered in Tajikistan.  “15 of them are currently undergoing medical treatment,” the minister said.