Number of HIV-positive Czechs up

In the first ten months of 2007, 100 new cases of HIV-positive persons were registered in the Czech Republic. The total number of HIV-positive Czech nationals is now 1,020 while 230 Czechs have full-blown AIDS and 130 of them have died of it, according to Miroslav Hlavaty, the director of a Prague-based NGO helping HIV victims. It is estimated, however, that the real number of HIV-positive persons in the country may be up to ten times higher. The NGO Dum Svetla, or the House of Light, which provides accommodation for HIV- positive people, was visited on Tuesday by the American ambassador Richard Graber ahead of the upcoming World AIDS Day.