Health Protection Agency cautioned that there are nine patients currently positive to AIDS and there might be several more who have not yet been diagnosed with the disease.
In commemoration of the World AIDS Day celebrated on December 1, HPA noted that the Maldives has a lower record of HIV AIDS compared to the South Asian region. However, health institutions have warned several times that the virus may break out in the country.
According to HPA, the virus was first diagnosed in the Maldives externally. However, the disease had later been diagnosed among the locals as well. HPA also declared that they have sent back 350 expatriates who tested HIV positive during medical checkups.
The survey, conducted in 2008 on account of spreading HIV in the Maldives, stated that sexual contact and sharing of needles when injecting drugs may cause the disease to spread among the population. It also stressed that most of the expatriates working in the Maldives hail from areas where AIDS is common.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that by the end of last year, 36.7 million people were infected with HIV AIDS, of which 1.1 million have passed away from the disease.
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