Increase in people living with HIV/AIDS

The rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in Afghanistan could cripple the desperately poor country unless urgent prevention and treatment measures are taken, the Afghan health ministry warned this week. Available data on the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Afghanistan are very limited, although infection rates are thought to be many times higher than the official figure. “We have 41 clinically proven HIV/AIDS cases, however we are estimating between 1,200-1,500 cases across the country,” Ghulam Sarwar, a national AIDS control programme officer at the health ministry said in the capital Kabul. While confirming the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in Afghanistan, Sevil Huseynoba, a medical officer with the World Health Organization (WHO) in Afghanistan said the spread of the disease was being assisted by the movement of refugees and labour migrants, along with long, porous borders. Low levels of awareness about the disease also fed its spread, Sarwar said. Lack of health education, growing intravenous drug abuse and sex work linked to poverty, were also factors fuelling HIV/AIDS, the health ministry said. “To tackle this problem, [of increasing HIV/AIDS rates] we need a proper budget, technical staff and training,” Said Azam Sajid, a national surveillance officer for the national HIV/AIDS programme, said. The health ministry’s Sarwar noted that assisting those infected was still in its infancy in Afghanistan, pointing to the fact that there was only one Voluntary Confidential Counselling Testing Centre (VCCTC), in the capital Kabul. More such centres are planned for other Afghan cities. The first official victim of HIV/AIDS in the country was an Afghan returnee and his children who died in November 2004 of AIDS-related illnesses, according to the health ministry. The fear now is that many more deaths will follow. Globally, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has already claimed over 20 million lives and another 39 million people are currently estimated to be living with the syndrome.