Kurdish Ministry of Health says the number of sexually transmitted diseases reported by the hospitals are on the rise in South Kurdistan.

Speaking to Rudaw website Dr. Khals Qadir, director of the Media and Public Relations of the Ministry of Health, said  that there were already 76 registered persons affected with HIV/Aids in Kurdistan.

According to official statistics there are 10 persons affected with HIV/AIDS in Kurdistan Two of them died last year.

The statistics show thatt at least 5000 persons have STD's. Qadir puts this number somewhere in between 5000-10000.

However, he admits that the statistics are not exact and the number of patients could be higher.

The official statistics say that the most common sex-related diseases are hepatitis B and C, two infectious and often fatal illnesses that infect the liver.

Experts say that the former is easily transmitted through sexual intercourse while the latter has a very lesser possibility.

They also point to a sizable increase in the cases of people with infectious hepatitis B and C since 2007, when there were only 621 cases of and 283 cases respectively.

But this year did the number surge to 1370 people with infectious hepatitis B and 446 with infectious hepatitis C.