Iran Official Warns Against AIDS Epidemic

Maryam Zadsar, advisor to Iran's Blood Transfusion Organization on AIDS-related issues, has warned against treating HIV-infected patients in a discriminatory manner, saying it could lead to a hidden epidemic in the Islamic state. Iran has more than 1 million intravenous drug users, 12 percent (120,000) of whom are likely to be infected with HIV. Iran has registered some 3,600 people infected with HIV, Zadsar said. Official statistics stated that up to 80 percent of Iranians with AIDS contracted HIV sexually. But Zadsar disputes this, saying that 65 percent of the registered HIV patients contracted the virus through unclean needles used during drug injection. Five percent contracted the virus through HIV-tainted blood transfusions and 30 percent through unknown channels, such as illicit sexual relationships, she said.

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