120109 – AIDS in Afghanistan
Though Afghanistan is considered to have one of the lowest prevalences of AIDS cases in the world, the mass availability of drugs and misinformation regarding the disease leaves the nation at the brink of an epidemic.
As of November 2009, in the preceding nine months in Afghanistan, more than 50 people have been found HIV positive. The number of infections is thus increased to 556, according to the National HIV/AIDS Control Program. Most of those infected have contracted the virus through the use of syringes. The Health Ministry estimates that the country there are 2-3 thousand people with HIV/AIDS.
HIV/AIDS infections increase in Afghanistan [Spero News]
“Awareness of the risks of catching HIV/AIDS and other diseases among Afghanistan’s estimated 19,000 intravenous drug users is rising, but there is no reason for complacency, say experts. ‘There is still potential for HIV transmission to reach an alarming level,’ Catherine Todd, an expert from Columbia University, told IRIN in Kabul, adding that harm reduction programmes must increase in order to prevent an epidemic.
HIV/AIDS Awareness Among Drug Users Increasing [Afghanistan Conflict Monitor]
The last United Nations survey of Afghanistan’s drug problem four years ago estimated the country’s addicts to number about 200,000. According to Afghan Counter Narcotics Minister Khodaidad, the figure is now far greater.
“More than 1.2 million people in Afghanistan are addicts. It’s a very huge number and every year it increases,” he told CNN.
Khodaidad says the Afghan government is largely powerless to control the production of opium while Taliban extremists, who now control and draw funding from drug crops, control cultivation areas despite major international military efforts to push them back.
“We did very little due to weakness of governors, due to insurgents, due to pressure of terrorism in the area,” he added. “We don‘t have sufficient law enforcement agencies — the police, the border security force, and other special forces to control this area — so it will take time.”
Afghan junkies risk triggering AIDS explosion [RAWA]