Record number of Czech HIV cases reported

Prague, Nov 13 (CTK) - The number of new HIV-infected patients registered
in the Czech Republic this year has broken the record as 128 new cases were
registered from the beginning of the year till the end of October, compared
to the 122 registered last year, Jana Vandasova from the AIDS laboratory
said Thursday.

According to the National Reference Laboratory for AIDS, it is the largest
growth since the mid-1980s when HIV virus started to be tested in the Czech
Republic.

In all, 1170 HIV-infected Czechs and foreigners with long term residence
have been registered, Vandasova told journalists.

In September alone, the number of HIV-infected patients increased by 16 new
cases, while it was only five new cases in October, Vandasova said.

In all, there were 988 HIV-infected Czechs and foreigners with permanent
residence at the end of October. This means that some of the 1170
registered patients have died but not all of them died from AIDS.

A total of 142 people had died from AIDS by the end of October.

According to the so far not confirmed information, 261 HIV-infected people
had developed full-blown AIDS by the end of September.

According to Miroslav Hlavaty from the Czech Society for AIDS Help, many
people who contracted HIV virus many years ago were registered among new
HIV-infected patients last year.

This means that a large number of HIV-infected people spreading the virus
without being aware of it could be among Czechs.

Far from all of them undergo necessary tests and the genuine number of the
infected could thus be ten times higher, Hlavaty said.