KULOB, October 16, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- 31 new HIV infection cases have been detected in Khatlon’s Kulob zone over the first nine months of this year, bringing a total number of the officially registered HIV sufferers in the area to 210, Amirkhon Ismoilov, the head of the epidemiological department within Kulob AIDS/HIV Center, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.

“Only in the mountain districts of Khovaling and Baljuvon, new cases of HIV infection have not detected over the report period,” said Ismoilov, “Of 31 HIV sufferers detected this year, 25 are residents of the city of Kulob”

Among the HIV sufferers detected this year are three women and a three-year-old baby, while others are injecting drug users, he said, noting that the women contracted the infection fro their husbands and the baby contracted the disease from his mother.

Of a total number of HIV sufferers registered in the area, 162 are residents of the city of Kulob, 15 are residents of the district of Kulob, 10 are from Vose and five are residents of Farkhor.