The number of AIDS and HIV patients in Syria doubled from 2016 to 2017, but is still lower than in 2011, the year which saw the highest number registered during the crisis.
The director of communicable and chronic diseases in the Health Ministry, Ahmed Dameiriya, said that the number of those with HIV or AIDS in Syria since the start of the year reached 35 cases, including 19 in Damascus.
Dameiriya noted the recording of one case in Homs and another in the Damascus countryside, two in both Lattakia and Aleppo, three in Tartous and seven in Hama.
He said that in 2016 the number of cases was 18, while in 2013 it was just 11. The director added that in 2011 the number was 69.
Dameiriya said that the highest years for cases of HIV and AIDS were 2006 and 2009, when the number of cases in each year was 70, and the lowest year was 1990, when there was just one case.
According to the health official, the number of cases in Syria since the start of the national program to address AIDS in 1987 has been 902 cases, with 332 non-Syrians and 570 Syrians. The number of AIDS-related deaths was 227, while 343 patients are pursuing treatment.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
