News from the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)
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Xinhua, December 1, 2009

Addiction main channel of AIDS transmission in Afghanistan: Health Minister

So far, some 556 registered cases of HIV/AIDS had been reported in the militancy-hit country, while nine people have died of the disease

Afghan Minister of Public Health Sayed Mohammad Amin Fatime warned Tuesday that AIDS transmission among illegal drug users remains the main factor of spreading the disease in the post-Taliban country.

The last United Nations survey of Afghanistan's drug problem four years ago estimated the country's addicts to number about 200,000. According to Afghan Counter Narcotics Minister Khodaidad, the figure is now far greater. "More than 1.2 million people in Afghanistan are addicts. It's a very huge number and every year it increases," he told CNN.
CNN, Sep. 15, 2009

"Addiction, especially using heroin through injection, continues to be the main channel of transmission of AIDS in Afghanistan," the minister said in a notice for Tuesday's World AIDS Day.

Fatime also called on all government institutions to speed up their efforts to eradicate the menace in the country.

"If we do not stop the cultivation, smuggling and using of drugs in the country, the number of AIDS cases would clearly increased," he said.

So far, some 556 registered cases of HIV/AIDS had been reported in the militancy-hit country, while nine people have died of the disease.

According to the latest report of United Nations AIDS and World Health Organization, some 33.2 million people, half of them women, suffer from AIDS around the world.

Category: Drugs, Healthcare/Environment - Views: 9005



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