A total of 2,140 have been infected with the HIV virus in Azerbaijan, and 260 people have died as a result of AIDS, MP Musa Guliyev told a parliamentary committee today. He told the social policy committee that of those infected with HIV, 85 percent are men and 15 percent are women. Sixty-five percent were infected through injecting drugs and 23.4 percent through sexual intercourse.

The social policy committee is discussing the draft law "On the prevention of the spread of HIV infection". Guliyev said that Azerbaijan had been the first country in the CIS to adopt a law to combat the spread of HIV infection in 1996. At that time only two people in the country were infected with the virus. The new law is now needed to meet the changing demands of the time, Guliyev said.

Committee chairman Hadi Rajabli said the draft law had been in the committee for two years. Discussions on the bill are continuing.

APA