A total of 114 persons infected with HIV were registered in Serbia in 2010, 25 of whom died, Serbian Health Minister Tomica Milosavljevic stated on Monday.

At the conference on the role of the parliament and MPs in preparation of effective measures of fight against HIV/Aids, Milosavljevic stated that a total of 2,554 persons who have been registered as HIV positive in Serbia, 1,524 of whom are Aids cases. Since its outbreak in 1984, a total of 1,071 HIV positive persons died from the virus in Serbia.

The conference was opened by Serbian parliament speaker Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic, who said that the role of MPs in reduction of the number of the persons infected with HIV is very important. She called on the MPs to increase citizens' consciousness on prevention and understanding of the implications of the disease.

The real number of the infected persons could be much higher given that Serbia has the lowest HIV testing rate in Europe, Djukic-Dejanovic said.

One of the key tasks of the MPs is to encourage citizens to take HIV tests since that is one of the ways to get a real insight into the proportion of the disease, the Serbian parliament speaker said.

Serbian Ombudsman Sasa Jankovic pointed out that HIV positive persons need help, and added that they stand more chance for recovery in a society which is tolerant toward those who are different.