Preventive measures taken on Syrian border against HIV

Iraq’s Ministry of Health (MoH),in affiliation with the Ministry of Interior (MoI), is stepping up routine health checks at some international borders and carrying out compulsory HIV/AIDS tests on people entering the country. Tests are now being carried out on everyone that enters Iraq from Syria in particular to try and prevent the virus spreading inside the country. Although the prevalence of HIV/AIDS is low in Iraq, there is growing concern over the spread of the virus if measures are not in put in place. “We have to be careful to prevent the entrance of new [HIV/AIDS] carriers in the country and we are intensifying tests on the Syrian border,” Dr Wadah Hamed, director of the AIDS Research Centre (ARC) and manager of the National AIDS Prevention Programme (NAPP), said in Baghdad. According to Hamed, the reporting of a large number of new cases in neighbouring Syria this year, could become a problem for Iraq as there are continuing large movements of people across the border. Nearly 300 people cross through immigration checkpoints between Syria and Iraq every day, the official said. “We have not detected any new cases in those recently tested at the border, but we should be very cautious and not allow the disease to spread in Iraq,” he added. Dr Maysaa Mardiny head of the NAPP in Syria, spoke to IRIN in Damascus on 5 July, where she confirmed the detection of 341 new HIV/AIDS cases in the country in the first quarter of 2005. The border testing in Iraq will be expanded in coming months. The tests will be carried out on any foreigner or Iraqi entering the country and there are plans to start this procedure at the airport in Baghdad, with flights arriving from and departing for Syria, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Lebanon, Kuwait and Russia. During Saddam Hussein’s regime, everyone entering Iraq had to take a compulsory HIV/AIDS test at a charge of US $50 per time. Foreign nationals found carrying the virus were deported immediately. HIV positive Iraqi nationals were taken to an isolation centre. Many say they suffered discrimination and were treated like criminals at the facility. Following the US invasion of Iraq in April 2003, compulsory testing stopped but since April 2005, the test has been offered free of charge on the Syrian border only. Iraq today has 72 people registered as living with HIV/AIDS who are under treatment, according to officials. However, the real figure could be higher as many people may not come forward to seek help due to their fear of discrimination. The disease remains a taboo subject in Iraq. All patients under treatment receive information, psychological treatment and medicine during weekly meetings at the ARC. A total of 448 HIV/AIDS cases have been detected since 1987 when the centre was first opened, officials said. This figure includes those who have died from the disease.