Sexual transmission accounted for about 65% of newly identified HIV cases in Iran last year, replacing injecting drug use as the main route of new infections as diagnoses among women increased, a leading HIV researcher said on Thursday.
More than half of all people diagnosed with HIV historically have a record of injecting drug use, but harm-reduction programs have reduced new infections in that group, Ladan Abbasian, head of Iran's AIDS Research Center, told labor-focused news agency ILNA.
“Despite the high share of injecting drug use in the overall statistics, the pattern of new cases has changed, and in recent years most new cases have occurred through sexual transmission,” Abbasian said.
Programs distributing disposable syringes, directing injecting drug users toward methadone maintenance treatment and establishing harm-reduction and methadone treatment centers have helped curb transmission among drug users, Abbasian added.
Sexual transmission reshapes HIV pattern
Figures released in December 2025 showed that about 64% of HIV infections recorded during the first six months of that Iranian calendar year were attributed to sexual transmission, while the route of transmission was not recorded in 28% of cases.
Iran had identified 25,870 people living with HIV at the time, while the actual number was estimated at around 41,500.
