Dhaka, Dec 1 (IANS) Thirty-seven people died this year due to AIDS as the total number of HIV/AIDS cases in Bangladesh rose to over 2,000, the country’s health minister said Wednesday.

The number of AIDS cases rose to 2,088, compared to 1,745 in 2009, Health and Family Welfare Minister Ruhul Huq said at a programme organised in the Bangladesh capital on the World AIDS Day, Xinhua reported.

‘We recorded 343 new HIV/AIDS cases in the country in the last 12 months, and 37 of them died,’ he said.

But according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the number of HIV/AIDS patients in Bangladesh has crossed 12,000.

Hasan Mahmood, deputy programme director of the National AIDS/STD Programme (NASP), said drug users, migrant workers and commercial sex workers were found to be the ‘most at risk’ of HIV infection.

Dhaka, Dec 1 (IANS) Thirty-seven people died this year due to AIDS as the total number of HIV/AIDS cases in Bangladesh rose to over 2,000, the country’s health minister said Wednesday.

The number of AIDS cases rose to 2,088, compared to 1,745 in 2009, Health and Family Welfare Minister Ruhul Huq said at a programme organised in the Bangladesh capital on the World AIDS Day, Xinhua reported.

‘We recorded 343 new HIV/AIDS cases in the country in the last 12 months, and 37 of them died,’ he said.

But according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the number of HIV/AIDS patients in Bangladesh has crossed 12,000.

Hasan Mahmood, deputy programme director of the National AIDS/STD Programme (NASP), said drug users, migrant workers and commercial sex workers were found to be the ‘most at risk’ of HIV infection.