Rising AIDS rates in MENA brought to the fore

UNAIDS has highlighted the cause of rising HIV/AIDS infection rates in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. In a new report on the development of the pandemic in MENA countries, presented in Algiers, the agency said some 92,000 people had contracted HIV by the end 2004. Although the HI virus was transmitted via a number of channels, including multiple sex partners and unsafe sexual intercourse between men, injecting drug-use was seen as the main cause of transmission in Algeria, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman. According to the report an estimated 54,000 people were living with HIV/AIDS in the MENA region, and the pandemic had claimed the lives of 28,000 people.