TBILISI, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- The South Caucasus country of Georgia Thursday made "getting to zero" the target of its anti-AIDS campaign to mark World AIDS Day.
In collaboration with UNAIDS and USAID, the Georgian government briefed the general public on the current situation of the infectious disease in the country.
According to Tengiz Tsertsvadze, director of the AIDS and Clinical Immunology Research Center at Tbilisi State University, Georgia so far has 3,080 diagnosed cases of HIV/AIDS, of which 812 are women.
Of those infected, 1,891 have developed full-blown AIDS, and the country has so far recorded 680 AIDS-related deaths.
Georgia has reported 403 new cases of HIV/AIDS infections this year, the second highest annual number after 2009, when 455 new cases were reported.
Tsertsvadze told a seminar Thursday that 55.6 percent of the HIV/AIDS infections in Georgia had been caused by drug users through syringe injections, while 37.5 percent had been caused by heterosexual relations.
After its 2006-2010 program, Georgia has entered its second special anti-AIDS campaign designed for 2011-2016. The government is focusing on mobilizing local funds from the private sector to join the campaign against AIDS.
The World Health Organization has rated Georgia as a country with a low AIDS rate at about 0.1 percent. However, Georgian public health authorities have been warning the general public about the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS infections.
Thanks to the Global Fund and donations from multilateral and bilateral donors, Georgia has collected 15 million U.S. dollars for its anti-AIDS campaign, but still needs 7 million dollars to optimize its campaign, which has the target of "getting to zero."
UNAIDS has set forth a 2015 anti-AIDS target of "three-zeros" - zero new infections, zero discrimination against HIV/AIDS patients and zero HIV/AIDS-related deaths.
Special Report: World AIDS Day 2011
