Baku, Azerbaijan, May 3
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
The number of people revealed to be HIV-positive in Iran has reached 36,570, said Parvin Afsar Kazerouni, an official with Iran’s health ministry.
However, Kazerouni, who heads the Bureau of the AIDS at the ministry, added that the mentioned number does not include the non-registered people, ISNA news agency reported.
She said that about 60 percent of HIV-positive people in Iran are not registered, adding that they might not even know they are having the infection.
The official further said that some 50 percent of the people diagnosed with the HIV infection are between the ages of 21 to 35.
Iranian officials say that some 67 percent of those diagnosed as HIV-positive, have acquired the virus via injection, while 30 percent have caught it via sexual intercourses.
Earlier in 2016, Ali Akbar Sayyari, deputy health minister, said that the number of Iranians infected with HIV through sexual intercourse has doubled over the past decade.
A report by Iran's health ministry, dated back to 2015 says that almost five percent of Iranian sex workers suffer HIV infection.
In 2013, Iran's Health Minister Hassan Hashemi expressed worries over the fast pace of the spread of AIDS in Iran, adding that a taboo about the disease prevents many Iranians from knowing they are infected.