Now humanity, medical science, has medicine with which it is able to cure AIDS; that is, to bring the patient to the point where he can live a fully healthy life, not spread the infection, and can even have a healthy child. Spartak Petrosyan, acting director of the Armenian National Center for Infectious Diseases, said this during a press conference Monday—and ahead of the World AIDS Day, on December 1.

"I believe this is a very important message that the society should not be afraid of this disease, know that there is a treatment, there is a way of managing it. You just have to follow the advice of doctors in a timely manner and not spread the infection," added Petrosyan.

According to him, all infectious diseases have their “latent period” which, in the case of HIV, can last ten years or more.

"Early treatment leads to the fact that the disease is treated much more easily. That's why there are studies being conducted on risk groups, these information campaigns, so that such people are checked for HIV at certain intervals. In recent years, thanks to these information campaigns, the spread of HIV among risk groups has considerably decreased. The numbers have started to rise among people who were not considered a risk group before," said Petrosyan.

In turn, Anna Mergelyan, head of the Monitoring and Evaluation Department of the National Center for Infectious Diseases, said that the first case of HIV was detected in Armenia in 1988, after which 6,076 cases of HIV infection were recorded until October 31, 2024, of which 438 were among foreign citizens.

In her words, 70 percent of these patients are male, and 48 percent of the cases were in the 25-39 age group at the time of this disease.

"The main way of transmission of the disease is the heterosexual way—76 percent, drug injection way—14 percent, homosexual way—7 percent, and a small number of cases when mother-to-child transmission and unknown sources," Mergelyan added.

She noted that in 2024, the position of these cases have changed in Armenia due to injecting narcotic drugs and homosexual relations, as 12 percent of cases in the country are now the way of homosexual transmission, and 6 percent of cases are through the use of narcotic drugs.

According to her, an average of more than 500 cases are detected annually in Armenia, 462—so far in 2024, and this disease is more widespread in Shirak Province.

And Vardan Arzakanyan, head of the Department of Epidemiological Control and Consultation of the National Center for Infectious Diseases, said that many detections are linked also to many examinations, but the main reason for the spread of this disease is unprotected sex.

He added that half of the patients in Armenia are migrant workers.