The number of registered HIV positive Bulgarians in by the end of 2003 reached 465, doctor Tonka Vurleva, Secretary General of the National AIDS Committee with Bulgaria's Health Ministry announced. She explained that the newly registered HIV positive cases in Bulgaria in 2003 were 63.
That number is disturbing, according to doctor Kostadin Kostov, director of Sofia's Infections Hospital. It is a relatively big number as compared to the numbers of the last years and marks an increase of 40%, he explained.
Kostov cited western experts that predict that HIV-infections in Eastern Europe will spread at rapid pace over the next few years. He pointed out that the number of AIDS suffering people in Ukraine has considerably gone up, reaching 570, 000.
In Kostov's words, the actual number of HIV positive people in Bulgaria is much bigger.