Vientiane - Laos has 3,395 known cases of people infected with HIV, of whom 2,180 have developed AIDS, state media reported on Friday. Doctor Chanthone Khamsybounhuang, deputy director of the Centre for HIV/AIDS/Sexually-transmitted Infections, said Laos had recorded 960 deaths attributed to HIV/AIDS in recent years, the Vientiane Times reported. He said the known HIV/AIDS infections amounted to 0.2 per cent of the population which is now over 6 million. It is estimated that there are about 8,000 people living with HIV in Laos. According to a report from the centre, there were 60,000 opium addicts in Laos in 2000, which has since been reduced, but methamphetamine users are now estimated to number 30,000. The National Strategic and Action Plan on HIV/AIDS/Sexually -transmitted Diseases anticipates that by 2010 at least 70 per cent of injecting drug users will practise sterile injecting techniques. The statistics were given on Thursday at a two-day workshop in Vientiane organized by the National Commission for Drug Control and Supervision (LCDC) and the Ministry of Health.



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