A number of 164 persons, including five children aged under 17, got infected with HIV/AIDS in Moldova in the first nine months of this year, the National Scientific-Practical Centre of Preventive Medicine says in its sanitary-epidemiological bulletin. This figure is 2.5 times higher compared with the corresponding period last year, when 67 persons, including two children, got infected with HIV/AIDS. The people that got infected with HIV in the first nine months of 2007 totalled 318. Four of them were children younger than 17. In the same period last year, there were recorded 282 HIV carriers, including six children. Thirty-two persons got HIV in September 2007, including one child younger than 17 years, in contrast to 27 carriers, including one child, in September 2006. As many as 1,999 cases of syphilis were reported in January-September 2007, including 70 on children younger than 17 years. This compares to 1,723 and, respectively, 53 cases discovered in 2006, the same period. Also, there were found 1,286 persons sick with acute and chronic gonorrhea, including 43 children. According to the National Scientific-Practical Centre of Preventive Medicine, the sexually transmitted diseases can be prevented by avoiding risky sexual relations with unknown partners, using the condom and being faithful and sincere in the couple.