ULAN BATOR, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia will continue to curb the spread of HIV and strive to maintain a low prevalence of the AIDS epidemic, a government official said Thursday.

Gansukh Battulga, an official with the National Committee on AIDS, told Xinhua that Mongolia is currently an HIV low-prevalence country with a total of 99 people, 15 of whom have died, infected with the virus that causes AIDS.

"Among the 99 HIV infected cases, 81 percent are men, and the remaining 19 percent are women," Battulga said. "Among the male infected cases, 83 percent belong to MSM (men who have sex with men) group while sex workers account for 54 percent of the female infected cases."

The official said the government has launched a variety of programs and tasked the National Committee on AIDS to coordinate all organizations in fighting the epidemic.

According to a National Strategy Plan for 2010-2015, Mongolia will strive to maintain its current low HIV-prevalence rate of below 5 percent in the most-at-risk population.