HIV rising rapidly in Kazakhstan

The chief doctor of an Aids prevention centre in western Kazakhstan has said there has been a large increase in the number of people infected by HIV, the virus which can lead to Aids.

Dr Marat Boranbayev said HIV was spreading in the region at an alarming rate, Interfax-Kazakstan news agency reported.

This year, 60 people tested HIV-positive for the disease in West Kazakhstan Region, compared to just three in the same period last year.

Dr Boranbayev said nearly all the new HIV patients were injecting drug users.

The risk of HIV transmission among dug injectors sharing needles is very high

He warned the situation could become even worse, with an increasing flow of foreign workers involved with the gas industry in Kazakhstan.

According to the United Nations' Aids agency, 3,500 people in Kazakhstan have tested positive for HIV, the large majority whom are drug users.

Experts have linked drug trafficking routes to outbreaks of HIV infections in more remote areas, and parts of Kazakhstan, such as the commercial capital Almaty, are believed to lie on trafficking routes.

Other remote towns lying on drug trafficking routes hit by HIV outbreaks include Irkutsk, in southern Siberia, and Urumchi, which has one of the highest rates of HIV infection in China.

Experts are concerned that these areas are ill-equipped to cope with the disease.

'Disaster'

Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev has described the drugs trade in the country as a disaster.

He said he intends to ask the country's parliament to toughen the punishment for using, selling and trafficking drugs.

Remote towns in China also face an HIV epidemic

The Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency said the president made the comments in a recent address to a gathering of the country's judges, whom he criticised for hindering the fight against drugs rather joining it.

Aids experts have called for better drug treatment and Aids prevention programmes to stem the spread of HIV among drug users.

They have warned that infection has dramatically increased among drug-using communities within months, rising from one percent to 40%.