Dr Tonka Varleva, head of Bulgaria’s Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS program, said Sunday that the real number of HIV-positive people in the country was about 4 000.

This figure is according to estimates of the system for scientific assessment of the HIV epidemics, developed by UNAIDS Program.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS data speak of 1 071 confirmed HIV cases in Bulgaria.

Dr. Varleva said a total of 133 new HIV cases were registered in Bulgaria since January 2009, including 102 men and 31 women. Their number for the same period of 2008 was 112.

 She announced that 60% of all new HIV cases in the country were in Sofia – 51, and Plovdiv – 20. There are 10 new cases in Varna and 17 in Pazardzhik. 5 other cases have been discovered in the rest of the country.

According to Dr. Varleva, some countries in the region have actual HIV epidemics since their infected people are over 1% of their populations.

She said among the new Bulgarian cases there were one 16- and three 18-year-olds, all of whom did not go to school and were drug addicts. There is also one case of a baby born with HIV by a HIV-positive mother, and of four HIV-positive pregnant women.

Varleva said the Ministry of Health and the HIV prevention program were staging a national information campaign starting December 1, for the sixth year in a row.

In her words, the main ways that HIV is transferred in Bulgaria is among intravenous drug users and sexual intercourse through homo- or bi-sexual men.

44 724 people were tested in the 19 cabinets for free and anonymous HIV testing around the country in 2009 so far, compared to 31 021 for all of 2009. 3019 Bulgarian prisoners were also tested for HIV.

Dr. Varleva said that HIV-positive men in Bulgaria lived an average of 31 years, and HIV-positive women – 32.

33 million people are HIV positive around the world; 3 million get infected every year.

Bulgaria’s Health Minister, Bozhidar Nanev, announced that the Health Ministry was going to provide treatment for all HIV positive persons in Bulgaria in 2010. It is also working ona new package of anti-HIV measures.

Minister Nanev urged everybody to do a AIDS/HIV test, and added that HIV-positive people could still have a very good quality of life with the contemporary medical means of treatment.

On Sunday he formally presented the keys to 15 news cars to the anti-AIDS program and several Bulgarian NGOs working in the field of HIV prevention and treatment.

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