Iran raises awareness on World AIDS Day

TEHRAN, Dec. 02 (MNA) – On the occasion of World’s AIDS Day, deputy minister of Health has reported on the current status of AIDS in Iran. Speaking at a conference on World’s AIDS Day in Ministry of Health, Ali Akbar Sayari noted that “the studies has revealed that in 2013 there has been a 58 per cent decline in infection in children and a 35 per cent drop in mortality rate. Also, the accessibility to treatment has increased up to 40 per cent.” Sayari referred to the difficulties on the way of controlling and diagnosing this disease in the world and region, including Iran and said, “unfortunately the infection rate in Iran has been rising and we have fallen behind the global rate.” “At the moment, we do not have a large-scale outbreak of HIV in Iran,” asserted Sayari, “it is called an epidemic when the outbreak rate reaches 1 per cent. Currently, about 0.15 per cent of the population ranging from 15-60 years old are infected with HIV. The prevalence of the disease among injection drug users is 15 per cent and 4.5 per cent among people with high-risk behaviors.” Sayari announced that 16 universities of medical sciences in Iran have launched healthcare programs for HIV positive pregnant women in order to reduce the percentage of HIV transmission from mother to child down to zero. “Controlling the spread of HIV is very difficult in Iran,” he said, “we need to raise awareness and increase the number of our diagnosis centers. Recently, eleven specialized HIV healthcare centers have opened in the country to provide these patients with social support since they often come from poor, unemployed backgrounds.”