KULOB, April 3, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- Over the first three months of this year, 13 another residents of Khatlon’s Kulob zone aged 32 to 40 have been tested positive for HIV, Amirkhon Ismoilov, the head of the epidemiology department within the Kulob AIDS/HIV Prevention Center, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.

“Five of them are women,” said Ismoilov.  According to him, six of those newly registered HIV sufferers are injecting drug users (IDUs) and five contracted the infection through sexual contact.

As of April 1, 2010, the total number of people living with HIV in the Kulob has been 251 people, he said.