Prague, Feb 2 (CTK) – The annual increase in the number of Czechs who are HIV-positive was the biggest over the past 30 years with 266 newly recorded cases in 2015, while there were only tens of them a year until 2006, according to the statistics published by the National Institute of Public Health (SZU) online.
Since 1985, when the occurrence of HIV started to be watched in the Czech Republic, 2620 people with HIV have been recorded. Over one tenth of them have died.
Compared with 2014, when there were 232 newly diagnosed cases of HIV, the annual increase in the number of the infected rose by almost 15 percent in 2015.
Before 2012, the annual increase was under 200 and it ranged between three and 91 cases from 1985 to 2006.
Last year, there were 31 new cases of AIDS, also a record number.
“In the past 13 years, a significant rise in the occurrence of the HIV infection was recorded in the Czech Republic,” the SZU said.
“The rise was mainly due to the transmission between men having sex with men. In 2015, it accounted for 78.2 percent of new HIV cases,” it added.
The proportion of heterosexually transmitted infections was 16.9 percent and that of intravenous drug users accounted for 0.8 percent.
Experts have warned of the surging number of HIV-positive cases.
NGOs and doctors say as the fear of the disease has subsided, people no longer protect themselves, relying on modern treatment, thanks to which the ill can survive much longer than before.
However, doctors stress that although the therapy has less side-effects than before, it is still very unpleasant and does not fully cure the disease.
There were 248 men and 18 women among the newly diagnosed cases in the Czech Republic in 2015. The men’s average age was 35 and women’s 39 years.
One half of the cases was recorded in Prague that also has the biggest number of HIV cases per capita.
Last year, the SZU recorded nine AIDS-related diseases and seven deaths of the people suffering from HIV due to a different cause. In all, out of the 2,620 HIV-positive Czechs, 339 have died, 236 of them from AIDS and 103 from a different cause.
