Tests in Laos Reveal "Very Alarming" AIDS Situation

The Laotian government said Monday that tests on 76,000 people in two provinces had revealed a "very alarming situation" of 300 AIDS cases and 994 patients testing HIV-positive. The government's Radio Vientiane said the tests in the northern province of Luang Prabang and the central province of Savanakhet, carried out by the National Prevention of HIV Committee this year, revealed that an overwhelming majority of HIV cases were between the ages of 20 and 39. Vientiane said about 100 AIDS patients had died in the two provinces so far this year. Laos, with a population of about 5.5 million, has been slow to acknowledge its AIDS problem, and official statistics on the epidemic are rare. The country faces the dual threat of a large intravenous drug-using population and a large number of women crossing into Thailand to work as prostitutes.

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