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State Commission: The number of drug users in Azerbaijan is considerably higher than the official statistics suggests

30 November 2011 13:39 (UTC +04:00)

APA reports that head of the Working Group of the State Commission on Combating Illicit Drug Turnover Araz Aliguliyev, National Programme Officer at UNAIDS Azerbaijan Jamila Jarrahova, representative of Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society Gafar Asgarzadeh, doctor of the Republic AIDS Center Dilshad Mahmudova, head of the gender issues commission of Azerbaijan State Economic University Diana Jafarova addressed the event.

Jarrahova said according to 2010 UNAIDS Report on Global AIDS, at the end of 2009, 33.3 million people were estimated to be living with HIV.
â€œ370 000 of them were children, of them 260 000 died. 52% of the HIV-infected people are women,â€ she said.

Mahmudova said HIV infection was first detected in Azerbaijan in 1997.
â€œEvery year we record 450 infected people. As of October 1, 2011, 3135 were diagnosed with this disease in Azerbaijan. Disorderly lifestyle, drug addiction cause AIDS epidemic,â€ she said.

Araz Aliguliyev said despite the measures taken against the drug addiction and illicit drug turnover, it has not been fully prevented. He said the number of drug users in Azerbaijan is considerably higher than the official statistics suggests.

Approximately 26 000 drug users have been officially recorded in Azerbaijan.