KULOB, April 10, 2015, Asia-Plus  -- 38 new cases of HIV infection have been registered in 10 districts of the Kulob region of the southern Khatlon province over the first three months of this year, bringing a total number of HVI sufferers in the area to 913, according to Kulob AIDS/HIV Prevention Center

“Of 38 new HIV sufferers registered in the Kulob region, 26 are men and 12 are women,” the Kulob AIDS/HIV Prevention Center director, Toir Tumanov, told Asia-Plus in an interview.

He says increase in the number of women of reproductive age having contracted HIV infection evokes serious concern.

Tumanov further added that the number of people contracting HIV infection through sexual contact had increased in Kulob.  “People who have contracted HIV infection through sexual contact have constituted 32 percent of the overall number of HIV sufferers registered in the Kulob region over the first three months of this year,” he noted.

According to him, 60 HIV sufferers have undergoing medical treatment since the beginning of the year and one of them has died.

The first case of HIV infection was reportedly registered in the Kulob region in 2003 and 206 HIV sufferers have died in the Kulob region since that time.