PRESS RELEASE
UN Department of Public Information, Yerevan Office
14 K.Liebknekht, Yerevan 375010, Armenia
Tel.: (374 1) 560 212
Fax/Tel.: (374 1) 561 406

November 30, 2004

HIV/AIDS EPIDEMIC IN THE WORLD AND REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA

As of December 2004 there are about 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS
in the world, the majority of whom – 25.4 million – are from the countries
of Sub-Saharan Africa. The number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the
countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, including Armenia and other
countries of the former Soviet Union, has reached 1.4 million.

About 4.9 million people have become HIV infected in the year of 2004,
whereof 210 thousand are from our region, which tenfold exceeds the number
of new cases registered in Eastern Europe and about fivefold – the number of
new cases registered in Northern America. Our region experiences the fastest
growing epidemic in the world. More than 20 million AIDS patients have died
since the beginning of the epidemic, whereof 3,1 million have died in the
year of 2004. The proportion of children and women among new HIV cases are
growing. As of December 2004 there are 2.2 million children and 17.6 million
women living with HIV/AIDS in the world. 640 thousand children have become
infected with HIV in 2004. The same year 510 thousand children have died of
AIDS-related illnesses in the world.

According to National AIDS Center, in Armenia registration of cases of human
immunodeficiency virus infection has started since 1988:
1988 – registration of the first HIV carrier infected through
heterosexual practice;
1988 – registration of the first AIDS patient;
1989 – registration of the first death from AIDS;
1990 – registration of the first case of HIV infection in injecting
drug users;
1996 – registration of the first HIV carrier woman;
2000 – registration of the first case of HIV transmission through
homosexual practice;
2001 – registration of the first case of HIV-infection and AIDS
among children;
2001 – registration of the first case of child death from AIDS;
2002 – HIV prevalence among IDUs is in the range of 15%;
2004 – 13 cases of HIV infection have been registered among women,
which exceeds the number of cases of HIV infection registered among women in
any of the previous years;
2004 – the number of HIV and AIDS cases as well as number of cases
of death of patients with HIV/AIDS registered this year is the highest.

>From 1988 to December 1, 2004, 304 HIV carriers were registered in the
Republic of Armenia, 288 of them are citizens of the Republic of Armenia.
The trend towards increasing the number of HIV infection cases has been
observed in the country. The number of HIV infection cases registered here
in the last 4 years in the Republic of Armenia constitutes 50% of all the
cases registered in the previous years. It is worth mentioning that already
53 cases of HIV infection have been registered this year, which exceeds the
number of HIV infection cases registered in any of the previous years. Men
constitute a prevailing part in the total number of HIV carriers 224 cases
(77.8%), women represent 64 cases (22.2%). 288 reported cases include 4
cases of HIV infection among children (1.4%). Like the entire world, Armenia
also has the tendency in the growth of number of infected women. In 2004, 13
cases of HIV-infected women were registered, which is unprecedented for the
statistics of the country. The majority of the HIV carriers (77.4%) belongs
to the age group of 20-39.

The main modes of transmission driving the epidemic in the Republic of
Armenia are transmission through injecting drug usage (53.2%) and
transmission through heterosexual practices (38.5%). Besides, cases of
mother-to-child HIV transmission as well as HIV transmission through blood
and homosexual contacts have also been registered in our country.

Sixty HIV-infected individuals are diagnosed with AIDS (whereof 7 are women
and 1 is a child), whereof 30 diagnoses have been made during the last two
years. From the beginning of the epidemic 45 cases of death (the cases
include 7 women and 1 child), from HIV/AIDS have been registered. More than
one third of these cases have been registered during the last two years. The
number of cases of HIV infection (53), AIDS (17) and death from AIDS-related
illnesses (11) registered in 2004 is the highest in comparison with the
number of the cases registered in any of the previous years.

The maximum number of HIV carriers was reported in Yerevan: 143 cases, which
constitute 49.7% of all the registered cases. Lori Marz is at second place –
23 cases, which constitute 8% of all the registered cases.

However, HIV/AIDS situation assessment has shown that the estimated number
of people living with HIV/AIDS in the Republic is about 2800-3000.

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Armine Halajyan
Information Assistant
UN Department of Public Information
Yerevan Office (Armenia)