World AIDS Day - 6,711 cases registered in Georgia

More men than women carry HIV in Georgia, official figures read. Photo by healthfacts.ng.
Agenda.ge, 01 Dec 2017 - 13:53, Tbilisi,Georgia

Today the world marks AIDS day, the first ever global health day.

The day is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), to show support for people living with HIV, and to commemorate those who have died from AIDS-related illnesses.

The day has been marked since 1988.

Georgia’s Centre of AIDS reports that in the first 11 months of 2017, 577 new cases of HIV were registered.

The registered number of those with the virus in Georgia is 6,711 people.

Out of the registered cases, 5,013 are males and 1,698 are females.

Head of the AIDS center Tengiz Tsertsvadze stated that the rate of the illness spreading through homosexual sex in Georgia is alarming.

Over the last 10 years the rate of spreading of the illness through homosexual sex has increased from 5 percent to 25 percent, which means every fourth male having sex with a male partner carries HIV,” Tsertsvadze said.

He said the cause of the illness spreading is 44 percent cases from sexual relationships and in 43 percent of cases due to drug usage.