DUSHANBE, February 16, Asia-Plus -- 85 HIV sufferers have to date died in Tajikistan, Zuhra Nurlyaminova, an official with the Republican AIDS Center, said. 

            According to her, 339 new cases of HIV infection were registered in Tajikistan last year, bringing a tot a number of HIV sufferers in the country to 1,049.  

            “The majority of HIV sufferers in the country are men aged 20 to 39,” said Nurlyaminova, “The number of HIV-infected women in the country rose 3 percent in 2007 year on year, and women now constitute more than 18 percent of the total number of people living with HIV in Tajikistan.”

            “Some 60 percent of HIV/AIDS-infected persons registered with the Center are drug injecting users,” said she, “In the meantime, the number of those who got HIV infection from sexual contact has increased over the past several years and they now constitute 21.5 percent of HIV sufferers in the country.”  According to her, the cause of the disease is unknown in 19 percent of the officially registered cases. 

            She added that number of cases when baby contracts HIV from an infected mother had also increased in the country.  Eight such cases have to date been registered in the country 

According to the Republican AIDS Center, in the territorial cross section the proportions of the registered HIV: Dushanbe – 38 percent (404 cases); Sughd – 28 percent (290 cases); Khatlon – 18 percent (186 cases), districts subordinate to the center (RRPs) – 9 percent (93 cases) and Gorno Badakhshan – 7 percent (76 cases).