
(LIP-jl) -- Not surprisingly, over 65 percent of Peru's registered AIDS/HIV cases are found in its capital city of Lima, according to the Peruvian Health Ministry's General Directorate of Epidemiology (Dirección General de Epidemiología -DGE).
However, the study also found that an astonishing 97% of Peru's AIDS/HIV patients contracted the deadly disease by sexual transmission, a clear sign that the Health Ministry's current AIDS/HIV educational and preventative programs are not doing enough to stem the growth of the deadly disease.
The second largest concentration of AIDS/HIV patients lyes in the Callao province with 1,461 cases, while Ica (643), Arequipa (605), the jungle department of Loreto (564), and the Andean department of Ancash (478) rounds out the list of Peru's highest concentrations of AIDS/HIV cases.
According to the report, the disease was first reported in the Andean nation in 1983. Today there are 28,624 known HIV cases and 18,761 registered AIDS cases in the country, of which 12,822 are reported to be found in Lima.