The first known cases of HIV/AIDS occurred in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1959. Then, no would have believed that the number of HIV/AIDS victims would reach 65 million in four decades and that 25 million would die of the disease. The HIV virus destroys T-cells, which are responsible for maintaining the immune system and attack infections in the body.

The symptoms of the disease might appear within months or in 10-12 years, depending on the age of the victim, the type of virus, and the genetic characteristics of the person exposed to the virus.

HIV/AIDS is a fatal disease which threatens everyone on our planet. Full-blown AIDS is the disease which occurs when the immune system of HIV-positive people breaks down. Its early symptoms sometimes appear in the form of a flu.

The World Health Organization has reported that there are over 40 million people with HIV/AIDS in the world. Someone is infected every 11 seconds, and one dies every 6 seconds, about 5 million annually. Most of the victims are between the ages of 20 and 49.

The two most common causes of AIDS are the use of contaminated syringes by intravenous drug users and unprotected sex. About 70 percent of intravenous drug users are HIV positive, although this number was 3 percent only 6 years ago.

Iran has no exact statistics about the number of people infected with HIV/AIDS in the country, although it is estimated to be about 21,000 people.

What happened in India should ring alarm bells for us, too, because there were similar statistics in India 6 years ago. But today there are over 6 million Indians infected with HIV.

According to the Third Five-Year Economic Development Plan, 95 billion rials should be allocated to the Prison Organization and the Health Ministry for training, education, and consultation of students in order to provide them with information about AIDS and hepatitis, but no measures have yet been taken in this regard.

Something must be done before it is too late.