TEHRAN, Dec 1, 2008 (AFP) - Iran's health ministry on Monday estimated that the Islamic republic has 80,000 HIV cases, four times more than the number of people registered, the state news agency IRNA reported.
"We estimate there are 80,000 people affected by the AIDS virus... or four times higher than the number of cases which are officially registered," Deputy Health Minister Hassan Emami Razavi said.
The official number of AIDS sufferers has reached 18,320, a 30-percent increase on the 2007 figure, out of Iran's population of 70 million, he said.
Health Minister Kamran Bagheri Lankarani, meanwhile, voiced concern over a new epidemic of AIDS transmitted through sexual contacts, pointing out that Iran has a high percentage of young people.
Sex outside marriage is officially banned in Iran.
However, the highest cause of AIDS in the country is the use of contaminated blood followed by intravenous drug use, with sexual relations in third place, according to official figures.
Governments across the globe pledged on Monday to step up the fight against HIV, combatting the stigma associated with the disease, and promised to bankroll treatment programmes on World AIDS Day.
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