KHUJAND, January 27, 212, Asia-Plus  -- The number of people living with HIV in the northern Sughd province is increasing.

213 new cases of HIV infection were registered in the province last year, bring the total number of officially registered HIV sufferers in the area to 750, including 552 men and 198 women.

According to the Sughd Regional AIDS Center, compared to 2010 the number of HIV infection cases registered last year is more by 108 cases, or 100 percent.  159 men, 54 women and three minors under the age of 4 were diagnosed with HIV last year.  

The HIV sufferers living in Sughd now include 8 children under the age of 4 and five children aged 5 to 14, the source said.

The majority of HIV sufferers in Sughd are people aged 30 to 39 – 377 people, or 50 percent.  Persons aged 40 to 49 constitute 21 percent (152 people) of the overall number r of the officially registered HIV sufferers in the province.

“The injecting drug users (IDUs) constitute 41 percent (309 people) of the overall number of the officially registered HIV suffers in northern Tajikistan,” said the source, “233 people, or 31 percent, contracted the infection through sexual contacts, and five people, or 0.5 percent, contracted the HIV infection through blood transfusions or through mother-to-child transmission.”  180 HIV sufferers have died.