Unprotected sex is the major factor for fuelling an explosion of AIDS epidemic in Bulgaria and around the world. Photo by Yuliana Nikolova (Sofia Photo Agency)
Fifty-nine new cases of HIV positive Bulgarians have been added to the deadly statistics since the beginning of the year, taking the total up to 748.
Men account for as many as 78% of the newly registered cases, showing a clear trend of increase as compared to women. By 2006 the sex ratio of the HIV-infected Bulgarians stood at 67% men and 33% women.
When the virus is sexually transmitted, same sex contacts among men prove to carry great risk - 24% of all newly registered men with AIDS infection say they had homosexual contacts with men. The other most vulnerable group are drug addicts.
The HIV-infected Bulgarians are aged from 16 to 61 and there is a sharp fall in the average low-end age with 30% of the registered being from 25 to 35 years old.
More than half of all diagnosed this year - 60 % - are citizens of the capital Sofia and the second-biggest town of Plovdiv.