KHUJAND, September 3, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- Medical workers with all hospitals and polyclinics in the Sughd province will be tested for HIV-infections, Abdujalol Jabborov, director of the Sughd Regional Center for Prevention of AIDS/HIV and Other Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), said in an interview with Asia-Plus.  

According to him, they will be tested in accordance with government’s resolution of April 1, 2008 on compulsory periodic testing for persons having contact with human blood in medical facilities.  

“At present, physicians and nurses working with the Khujand maternity house and the central regional hospital are being tested for HIV,” Jabborov said. 

In all, 24,249 people have been tested for HIV in northern Tajikistan since the beginning of this year.  Among them were both local residents and foreign citizens working in the province.  “167 new cases of HIV have been detected in the province since the beginning of this year,” Jabborov noted.