Currently there are 3,410 carriers of the deadly disease in Medan, where the number was dominated by males, dr Mardohar Tambunan, the secretary of the Medan health affairs office said here on Thursday.
"Males make up 2,573 of the carriers," Tambunan said.
Dr Mardohar described the high number as alarming saying the number of people known to have been infected by the HIV/AIDs virus has increased in the past six year.
The wider participation of institutions and organizations in the program to detect cases also contributed to the growing number of known case, he said.
"It is like the phenomenon of the tip of the iceberg. What is visible only a small part of the much bigger unknown number," he said.
Heterosexuals still account for the largest number of 2,198 cases with narcotic injection accounting for 958 cases and homosexual for 118 cases, he said.
However, household mothers have also been known to have infected by the virus, he said, adding there were 452 household mothers known to have been infected in Medan since 2006.
There are also 39 cases with virus transmitted through blood transfusion, he added.
(H-ASG/B003)
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
