PRAGUE, July 1 (Xinhua) -- A total of 68 new HIV-positive patients were registered in the Czech Republic from January until the end of May this year, according to the latest figures released by the State Health Institute (SZU).

    Last year the number of newly registered HIV-positive patients was 147, the steepest year-on-year increase since the mid-1980s when tests for HIV were launched in the country.

    A total of 1,257 people have been infected with HIV in the Czech Republic so far, 999 are men and 258 women. Among them, 306 were foreigners without a permanent residence permit live in the country. Half of all HIV-positive patients were registered in Prague.

    55 percent caught the infection through homosexual or bisexual and 30 percent through heterosexual intercourse. 7 percent are drug addicts who use drugs intravenously. 2.5 percent were infected through transfusions in the past when blood could not be tested for the presence of HIV. The rest are unidentified causes of infection (4 percent) and HIV transfer from a mother to her child (0.3 percent).

    Experts say the real number of the HIV-positive patients is far higher as some of them do not know about their infection.

    A total of 147 people have died of AIDS in the country since 1986.