HIV epidemics hit Middle East and north Africa
Source: Agencies |
August 4, 2011, Thursday
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EPIDEMICS of HIV are emerging among gay and bisexual men in the Middle East and north Africa and high levels of risky sexual behavior threaten to spread the AIDS virus further, according to researchers.
In the first study of its kind in a region where homosexuality and bisexuality are taboo, researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar found evidence for concentrated HIV epidemics - where infection rates are above 5 percent in a certain population group - in several countries, such as Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan and Tunisia.
In one setting in Pakistan, HIV rates are up to 28 percent, they said in a study in the Public Library of Science Medicine journal.
The researchers stressed the need for countries at risk to act quickly to expand HIV surveillance and access to HIV testing, prevention and treatment for men who have sex with men to halt the spread.
An estimated 33.3 million people worldwide had the human immunodeficiency virus that causes Aids in 2009, according to the latest United Nations data, and 22.5 million of those live in sub-Saharan Africa.
There is little published data on the Middle East and north African regions. Ghina Mumtaz, who led the study with colleague Laith Abu-Raddad, said this has been driving misconceptions that there is no reliable information at all.
She said: "It is like a black hole in the global HIV map, and this has triggered many controversies and debates around the status of the epidemic."
When they looked more closely, researchers found that data was available, although it may have been gathered by various groups and not made public. After analyzing various reports, they found "considerable and increasing epidemiological evidence on HIV and risk behavior" in the region.
The findings were worrying, but not surprising, the researchers said. They found that by 2008, HIV transmission via anal sex among men was responsible for more than a quarter of notified cases of HIV in several countries in the region.
Abu-Raddad said: "All over the world there are actually newly-emerging epidemics in men who have sex with men."
He added that more testing, surveillance and access to HIV services would help limit the spread of the epidemics and prevent HIV reaching other population groups, such as women and heterosexuals.
Mumtaz said: "Men who have sex with men are still a highly hidden population in the region and there is stigma around this behavior, but some countries have been able to find creative ways of dealing with the problem and at the same time avoid the social, cultural and political sensitivities."
In the first study of its kind in a region where homosexuality and bisexuality are taboo, researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar found evidence for concentrated HIV epidemics - where infection rates are above 5 percent in a certain population group - in several countries, such as Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan and Tunisia.
In one setting in Pakistan, HIV rates are up to 28 percent, they said in a study in the Public Library of Science Medicine journal.
The researchers stressed the need for countries at risk to act quickly to expand HIV surveillance and access to HIV testing, prevention and treatment for men who have sex with men to halt the spread.
An estimated 33.3 million people worldwide had the human immunodeficiency virus that causes Aids in 2009, according to the latest United Nations data, and 22.5 million of those live in sub-Saharan Africa.
There is little published data on the Middle East and north African regions. Ghina Mumtaz, who led the study with colleague Laith Abu-Raddad, said this has been driving misconceptions that there is no reliable information at all.
She said: "It is like a black hole in the global HIV map, and this has triggered many controversies and debates around the status of the epidemic."
When they looked more closely, researchers found that data was available, although it may have been gathered by various groups and not made public. After analyzing various reports, they found "considerable and increasing epidemiological evidence on HIV and risk behavior" in the region.
The findings were worrying, but not surprising, the researchers said. They found that by 2008, HIV transmission via anal sex among men was responsible for more than a quarter of notified cases of HIV in several countries in the region.
Abu-Raddad said: "All over the world there are actually newly-emerging epidemics in men who have sex with men."
He added that more testing, surveillance and access to HIV services would help limit the spread of the epidemics and prevent HIV reaching other population groups, such as women and heterosexuals.
Mumtaz said: "Men who have sex with men are still a highly hidden population in the region and there is stigma around this behavior, but some countries have been able to find creative ways of dealing with the problem and at the same time avoid the social, cultural and political sensitivities."
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