A lab for testing HIV/AIDS and B and C hepatitis, and counseling was opened in the Territorial Medical Association from Buiucani district, supported by the USAID, on Tuesday, November 4. Stefan Gheorghita, an official with the National Scientific Practical Center for Preventive Medicine, said that the center’s goal is implicitly to inform people about the ways of transmitting infectious diseases and about preventing measures. “It is useful to open such a center in Buiucani, because the nearer such services are, the more convenient it is for the population, and, of course, the better results we will expect,” Cercan Vera, the Buiucani Medical Territorial Association’s director said. The center’s services are free for most people. People who are not officially employed and have no compulsory medical insurances will pay for the tests on hepatitis B and C. In Moldova, there are 23 Voluntary Counseling and HIV, Hepatitis B & C Testing Centers, 4 of them -- in Chisinau. According to Mihai Moldovanu, the chief of the Chisinau Health Direction, such centers will open in all Chisinau district till the end of this year. The next center is to open in Botanica district. In Moldova, the epidemiological HIV/AIDS and the sexually-transmitted diseases situation remains unfavorable. In September 2008, 32 HIV infected were registered, including 1 child. During 9 months of 2008, 336 HIV infected were registered, including 5 children below 17 years, compared with 316 infected bearers, including 5 children in the same period of 2007. From January to September 2008, 55 adults developed AIDS.