Latest statistics: HIV in Georgia

More than 150 people in Georgia have contracted HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) this year, say health officials.

An updated list of the number of people suffering from HIV in Georgia was released today by Georgia’s AIDS and Clinical Immunology Research Centre.

Figures showed in 2015, 169 new cases of HIV were reported in the first three months of the year.

As of April 1, a total of 4,864 HIV cases were registered with the Georgian AIDS and Clinical Immunology Research Centre.

Of these, 3,581 were male patients and 1,283 were female. The overwhelming majority of patients were aged between 29 and 40. 

Furthermore, of the registered HIV cases, 2,935 had developed into AIDS and 999 cases resulted in death.

Georgian health officials noted 2,596 infected patients were currently receiving treatment for HIV. Of these, 316 patients lived in Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia region.

HIV is a virus that weakens a person’s immune system by destroying important cells that fight disease and infection. The illness can develop into AIDS, which is the final stage of HIV infection however not everyone who has HIV will contract AIDS, according to US government health website www.aids.gov.

HIV can be contracted through unprotected sex, through sharing of infected needles, through blood transfusion and organ donation, and more. There is a test that can confirm HIV diagnosis and medications are available to suppress the virus and delay the onset of AIDS.

The Georgian Government identified the fight against HIV/AIDS among the top national priorities in the early 1990s, making it one of the first Former Soviet Union (FSU) republics to develop a national HIV/AIDS programme in 1993.