KHUJAND, July 31, 2012, Asia-Plus -- 88 new cases of HIV infections have been registered in the northern Sughd province over the fist six months of this year, bringing a total number of people living with HIV in the area to 840, Dalil Toshmatov, the head of the Sughd health directorate, announced at a news conference in Khujand on July 31.

According to him, the newly registered HVI sufferers in the province included 55 men and 33 women.

“To-date, 230 HIV sufferers registered in Sughd have died and 20 others have left Tajikistan,” Toshmatov noted.

Injecting drug users (IDUs) reportedly account for 39.4 percent (332 people) of the total number of the officially registered HIV sufferers in Sughd; 275 people, or 32.9 percent, have contracted the infection through sex; five children (0.7 percent) have contracted the infection through the mother-child transmission (mothers could transmitted the disease to their children whether during pregnancy in the uterus, childbirth or breast milk); and the cause of the infection is unknown in 215 cases (25.5 percent).