TEHRAN — Third International Conference and the 7th National AIDS Seminar is taking place in Tehran from November 21 to 23, ISNA quoted the conference’s scientific director as saying. 

Early diagnosis of AID/HIV patients, educational and preventive programs for controlling the disease and devoting extra attention to sexual transmission of the disease are the main topics of this year’s conference, Masoud Mardani announced.
It is estimated that over 66,000 people in Iran have AIDS/HIV but over one third of them don’t know they have the disease or deny it. This leads to adverse consequences for the society as they may transfer the disease to other people, he said, adding that identifying and treating these people is among the most important topics of the conference.
AIDS epidemiology in Iran has changed as using infected needles for injection of drugs is still the main method of transmission of the disease, but the rate of sexual transmission of the disease is growing, affecting specially the young and teenagers, he said.

Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raeisi announced that annually 2,000 new AIDS/HIV patients are diagnosed and the diagnosis rate is expected to double in future years.
In this year’s conference, he said, special attention will be directed at sexually transmitted diseases including HIV and HPV and methods to diagnose and treat them as early as possible. 
Last scientific findings about HPV, as well as precautionary measures against it and false beliefs about such diseases are also discussed over the conference, he added. 
On Wednesday, Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raeisi announced that annually 2,000 new AIDS/HIV patients are diagnosed and the diagnosis rate is expected to double in future years.
According to Raeisi, The annual costs incurred by every AIDS/HIV patient is around $14,000 to $16,000. 

HIV/AIDS prevalence in Iran and the world
Ministry of Health center for communicable diseases management announced that by the end of previous Iranian calendar year (March 2018) some 37,650 had been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in Iran. 
According to the Health Ministry, Some 83 percent of the patients are men and the rest are women. Almost half of the patients are ageing 21-35. Out of the 37,650 individuals diagnosed with the virus so far some 13,393 have died. The HIV have led to AIDS in 15,278 of the patients. 
Sharing the same needle for injection of drugs with 61.7 percent accounts for the highest number of HIV transmission in the country, while high risk sexual behavior are responsible for 21.3 percent of the infections. It was also indicated that some 1.5 percent of the infection transmission are passed from mother to her child. The rest of the cases are infected with the virus for unknown reasons. 
According to the data provided by the World Health Organization since the beginning of the epidemic, more than 70 million people have been infected with the HIV virus and about 35 million people have died of HIV. Globally, 36.7 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2016. An estimated 0.8% of adults aged 15–49 years worldwide are living with HIV, although the burden of the epidemic continues to vary considerably between countries and regions. Sub-Saharan Africa remains most severely affected, with nearly 1 in every 25 adults (4.2%) living with HIV and accounting for nearly two-thirds of the people living with HIV worldwide.
SJ/MQ/