By IANS
Bogota : Some 57,500 Colombians have full-grown AIDS and another 114,000 people could be infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), reported Spain’s EFE news agency Thursday.
According to an estimate in 2007, around 60 percent of AIDS patients are between 15 and 35 years, a quarter of whom are in the country’s capital, Deputy Health Minister Blanca Elvira Cajigas told reporters Wednesday.
Around 77 percent of AIDS patients are men, the minister said, adding that the cities with the highest number of cases are Bogota, Cali, Medellin and Barranquilla.
“We believe the figure is much higher,” Cajigas said, noting that the total number of people with AIDS and infected with HIV may be 171,500.
This “is a disease that at first does not produce any symptoms and may only be detected after five or ten years,” the minister said.
Ricardo Luque, a Social Protection Ministry expert, said the cost of treating AIDS in Colombia is extremely high, around $300 a month on an average.