TEHRAN, Dec 1 (AFP) - Iran has recorded a total of 203 AIDS-related deaths since the disease first appeared in the country 12 years ago, Health Minister Mohammad Farhadi said Wednesday.

In total, 1,804 people infected with the virus have been registered in the country, and of those 237 have developed full-blown AIDS, he said, quoted by the official news agency IRNA.

Farhadi said that 67 percent of infections came from injecting drugs; 13 percent through sexual contact; 10 percent through blood transfusions and one percent were due to the transfer of the virus from mother to child.

Tehran banned the import of blood products from abroad for fear they could be contaminated after the first Iranian AIDS case in 1987, where a child was infected from a blood transfusion.

The government launched an AIDS prevention campaign in the 1990s, focused particularly on health sector professionals. It also set up an AIDS information centre.

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