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TEHRAN – The third international conference and the seventh national AIDS seminar will be held in Tehran from 21 to 23 November, said the scientific director of the conference, ISNA.
Early diagnosis of AIDS / HIV patients, educational and preventive programs to control the disease, and special attention to the sexual transmission of the disease are the main topics of this year's conference, Masoud Mardani said.
It is estimated that more than 66,000 Iranians are living with HIV / AIDS, but more than a third of them do not know they have the disease or deny it. This has negative consequences for society as it could spread the disease to other people, he said, adding that the identification and treatment of these people were among the most important topics. of the conference.
The epidemiology of AIDS has changed in Iran, the use of infected needles for injecting drugs remains the main method of transmission of the disease, but the rate of sexual transmission of the disease is increasing, particularly affecting young people and women. teenagers, he said.
Deputy Minister of Health Alireza Raeisi announced that 2,000 new HIV / AIDS patients are being diagnosed each year and that the diagnosis rate is expected to double in the coming years.
At this year's conference, he said, special attention will be given to sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV and HPV, as well as methods to diagnose and treat them as early as possible. possible.
The latest scientific findings on HPV, as well as precautionary measures against HPV and misconceptions about HPV, are also discussed during the conference, he added.
On Wednesday, Deputy Minister of Health Alireza Raeisi announced that 2,000 new HIV / AIDS patients are diagnosed each year and that the diagnostic rate is expected to double in the coming years.
According to Raeisi, the annual costs for each AIDS / HIV patient are between $ 14,000 and $ 16,000.
Prevalence of HIV / AIDS in Iran and around the world
The Ministry of Health's Communicable Disease Management Center reported that by the end of the previous Iranian civil year (March 2018), about 37,650 people had been diagnosed with HIV / AIDS in Iran.
According to the Ministry of Health, about 83% of patients are men and the rest are women. Nearly half of the patients are between 21 and 35 years old. Of the 37,650 people diagnosed with the virus, 13,393 died. HIV led to AIDS in 15,278 patients.
Sharing the same needle for injecting drugs with 61.7% represents the highest number of HIV transmission in the country, while high-risk sexual behaviors account for 21.3% of infections. It has also been reported that about 1.5% of cases of transmission of the infection are transmitted from mother to child. The rest of the cases are infected with the virus for unknown reasons.
According to data provided by the World Health Organization since the beginning of the epidemic, more than 70 million people have been infected with the HIV virus and about 35 million people have died of HIV. Globally, 36.7 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2016. It is estimated that 0.8% of adults aged 15-49 live with HIV, although the burden of HIV is high. Epidemic continues to vary considerably between countries and regions. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most affected, with nearly one in 25 adults (4.2%) living with HIV and accounting for nearly two-thirds of people living with HIV worldwide.
SJ / MQ /
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