Epidemics of HIV are emerging among men in the Middle East
and North Africa and high levels of risky behaviour threaten to spread the AIDS
virus further in the region, researchers said Tuesday.
In the first study of its kind, researchers from Weill
Cornell Medical College in Qatar found evidence for concentrated HIV epidemics
– where infection rates are above five percent in a certain population group – in
several countries such as Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan and Tunisia.
In one setting in Pakistan, HIV rates reached up to 28
percent, they said in a study in the Public Library of Science (PLoS) Medicine
journal.
The researchers stressed the need for at-risk countries to
act quickly to expand HIV surveillance and access to HIV testing, prevention
and treatment services in an effort to halt further spread.
An estimated 33.3 million people worldwide had the human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) 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 and Ghina Mumtaz, who led the study with colleague Laith
Abu-Raddad, said this had been driving misconceptions that there is no reliable
information at all.
“It’s like the black hole in the global HIV map – and
this has triggered many controversies and debates around the status of the
epidemic,” she said in a telephone interview.
But when they looked more closely, the researchers found
that data was indeed available, although often it had been gathered by various
groups and not made public.
“It’s important to see what’s there to get an
evidence-based understanding of the dynamics of the epidemic,” Mumtaz
said.
“All over the world there are actually newly-emerging
epidemics in men who have sex with men and … this region is no
exception,” said Abu-Raddad.
He added that more testing, surveillance and access to HIV
services would help limit the size of the epidemics and prevent HIV
transmission from reaching other population groups.
Morocco, Lebanon and Pakistan have supported NGOs to deliver
services to this highly hidden population without any direct government
involvement, said Mumtaz.
“We are seeing some very effective programmes by NGOs
who can provide an avenue for the governments to address their growing HIV
problems,” she said. “These programmes need to be expanded and
initiated in the rest of the countries.”
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