THERE ARE ABOUT 300 AIDS SUFFERERS IN CROATIA- ACCORDING TO WHO ESTIMATES

ESTIMATES ZAGREB, Oct 14 (Hina) - The first cases of people suffering from AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) were recorded in the United States in 1981, whereas the first AIDS victim in Croatia was registered in 1986. It was a haemophiliac who was believed to contract AIDS after receiving an infected blood product imported from abroad, Vladan Radotic and Natasa Ugarkovic said in an article published in the Zagreb medical faculty students' paper "Medicinar". According to a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO), there were almost 1,300,000 AIDS sufferers world-wide by the end of 1995. In Croatia, a hundred people suffered from AIDS and 63 people succumbed to that in the period from 1986 to September 1996. Forty- seven (47) percent of HIV (human immuno-deficiency virus)-infected people in Croatia were homosexuals and hetero sexual transmission made up 39 percent of the AIDS patients, whereas 10 percent of the cases were infected through intravenous injections of drugs. Out of those 100 cases, 84 were male sufferers and 16 women were struck by AIDS. The youngest patient was only seven-year-old. According WHO estimates, in Croatia there are now about 300 people infected by HIV. (hina) jn mš 181048 MET oct 97