Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 1 / Trend K.Zarbaliyeva /
Some 64 percent of HIV-positive individuals in Azerbaijan were infected through drug use, AIDS Combat Center Director Hagigat Gadirova said today at an event held upon the initiative of Azerbaijani Ombudsman Elmira Suleymanova.
AIDS has killed 318 people in Azerbaijan, Gadirova said.
The Education Ministry must include a subject on living a healthy lifestyle in the curriculum of secondary schools, Suleymanova said.
She added that the number of HIV-positive individuals has topped 2,000 in Azerbaijan.
Information about the HIV infection spread for the first time in 1981 in the United States. The U.N. declared Dec. 1 AIDS Day in 1988.
Today, about 34 million people living with HIV/AIDS have been registered in the world. Every year, the disease kills about 2 million people. Due to the increase in the number of infected people in recent years, activities to combat the spread of the virus have increased.