KHOROG, October 23, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- 15 new HIV cases have been reported in Gorno Badakhshan since the beginning of this year, bringing a total number of HIV sufferers in the region to 91, Mulloabdol Abdulloyev, director of the GBAO AIDS Center, announced at a press conference in Khorog.

According to him, 79 of 91 officially registered HIV sufferers in Gorno Badakhshan are residents of the city of Khorog.    

“82 HIV sufferers are injecting dug users,” Abdulloyev said.    

The GBAO AIDS director noted that the rate of HIV having been contracted through sexual intercourse showed an upward tendency in the region.  “Over the past three-four years, this rate has risen from 2 to 13 percent of the total number of HIV sufferers in the region,” Abdulloyev said.

He noted that the labor migrants who are also among those vulnerable to HIV/AIDS were the main source of spread of HIV in the region through sexual intercourse.  

According to official data, more than 24,000 residents of Gorno Badakhshan are currently in labor migration.  

In the meantime, according to the GBAO Narcology Dispensary, there are 773 drug-dependent persons in the region; of them, 418 are injecting drug users.