KATHMANDU, Aug 23 (AFP) - Nearly 10 percent of Nepal's AIDS-related deaths have occured in the border district of Morang, according to health officials.

In the last year, AIDS had claimed the lives of 10 people in the district of Morang, an area which borders India, 290 kilometers (181 miles) southeast of here, the Kathmandu Post said, quoting an official from the HIV/AIDS Coordination Section (HCS) in Morang.

Across the country, 141 people had died in the last year after contracting the virus.

Another 115 people in Morang are believed to be infected with Human Immune-deficiency Virus (HIV) -- the virus that leads to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) -- again nearly 10 percent of the 1,500 estimated to be HIV-positive across the whole country.

Last year the HCS in Morang reported 68 cases of HIV.

According to Usha Koirala, chief of the HCS, the upswing in the numbers is due to a lack of awareness about safe sexual practices.

He said that of those who were HIV-positive, more than 60 percent had returned from India where they had had sex with a prostitute.

Many others were drug addicts, according to the HCS statistics.

Nepal had a total of 30,000 drug addicts in 1999, the majority of whom were aged between 15 and 30, according to government data. Anti-drugs groups put the number of addicts at up to 60,000.

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