KULOB, December 1, 2008, Asia-Plus  -- New case of HIV detected in Khatlon’s Kulob region on November 30 has brought a total number of officially registered HIV sufferers in the region to 176, according to Kulob AIDS Center # 2.  

The new case was detected in the Shuroobod district.

The age group 35-49 years accounted for an estimated 53% of HIV diagnoses in the region, and the age group 20-29 years accounted for 30 percent.

Injecting drug users (IDUs) constitute 65 percent of the HIV sufferers officially registered in the Kulob region. 

According to the AIDS Center, nine of prisoners at the Kulob pretrial detention facility are HIV-infected persons.  

The first eight cases of HIV were registered in Khatlon’s Kulob region in 2003.  In 2007, 48 new cases of the infection were registered in the region. 

The HIV-infection cases have been reported in eight of ten districts of the region and 138 of them have been registered in the city and the district of Kulob.