Tehran, Dec 29, IRNA -- In a dramatic move to check the spread of HIV Iran on Sunday warned its health officials against rejecting AIDS patients, saying it will deal with any violations.

"Any refusal to accept those infected with the AIDS virus is against the law and because of the social problem which it creates, any violation will be followed up," the ministry said in a directive, sent to the heads of the country's medical universities.

According to the directive, all Iranian health units, including private and state-owned, are required to accept and provide medication for those who consult for infection with HIV -- a virus which causes AIDS.

The directive said the move was taken because of the priority which the Health Ministry had opted to give to prevention, medication and control of AIDS disease.

"Although the figures of contamination (with AIDS) in Iran are not high yet, the presence of this wild virus in the society augurs of gloomy prospects," the directive, signed by Deputy Health Minister, Dr. Mohammad Esmaeel Akbari, said.

It cited the government's measures 'in preparing, strengthening and establishing units for infectious diseases in universities to accept AIDS patients' and giving subsidies for their medication.

The directive also asked for all-out support of the nation and the country's health centers for AIDS patients.

Iranian Blood Transfusion Organization said in October that there were 4,237 AIDS patients in Iran and that 585 people had died of diseases related to acquired immune deficiency syndrome in the country thus far.

Among the patients, 4,048 persons or 95.5 percent of the total, were men and the rest women, it said, adding drug addiction accounted for 65 percent of AIDS infection in Iran in which the disease is transmitted through contaminated shared needles.

About 300,000 addicts are said to be injecting drugs in Iran.

Sexual contact accounts only for 8.4 percent of infection, while in 21.4 percent of cases, the cause of the disease remains unknown, it added.

In 4.7 percent of the infections, transfusion of contaminated blood is the culprit, while 0.4 percent of infections occur in contaminated fetuses, the report further said.

According to the organization, social stigma, discrimination, poor public awareness as well as officials' inattention were threats to check the deadly disease in Iran.

Press cited a health ministry official in July as saying that sexually-transmitted diseases were spreading fast in Iran and some 20,650 people were estimated to be infected with HIV.

"This is the break-out of an epidemic and will become pandemic in the near future," they quoted the head of the disease control center of the Health Ministry, Mohammad-Mehdi Gooya, as saying.

"So far, 300,000 cases of infection with various types of sexually transmitted diseases have been reported," Gooya said.

Majlis health commission suggests training aimed at fighting AIDS

Shiraz, Fars prov, Dec 29, IRNA -- Majlis Deputy Head of Health and reatment Committee Dr. Seyed Mansour Kashfi stressed here on Saturday, in view of increasing number of AIDS infection in the community, the need for public training on fighting against the disease.

Kashfi told IRNA, the breakout and expansion of AIDS in various countries is associated with various factors, while in our country it is mainly linked with drug addiction.

He added that besides providing training, the officials in charge should draw up comprehensive programs aimed at controlling the related social and ethical problems.

According to him, though the current ethical criteria prevailing the community don't contribute to promotion of AIDS, if social problems are not solved they might lead to increased infection.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates the number of AIDS infection in every country on the basis of their health conditions. The coefficient specified for Iran is 33 percent.

Experts in Iran estimated 20,659 cases of AIDS by mid summer, out of whom about 4,237 have been identified.

In Fars province 1,227 cases of AIDS have been identified since 1997, among whom 1,037 cases were infected through injection.