Albania has registered 65 new HIV/AIDS cases in the past ten months, the Public Health Institute has confirmed.

The number is the largest ever registered for a 10-month period of a year, MIA reports from Tirana.

The new cases bring the total number of HIV/AIDS registered patients to over 500, although the real number is much higher.

"We believe the total number of those infected with the virus exceeds 1,000", said HIV/AIDS national coordinator Ronald Bani.

He urged all pregnant women to do a HIV/AIDS test, since appropriate measures would result in the birth of healthy babies.

According to the Institute, the virus is spread through sexual intercourse in 90.4 percent of cases, but also by blood, drug injection and children inheriting the disease from their mothers.

The first AIDS case in Albania was registered in 1993.