MoPH marks World AIDS Day in Kabul

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) Ministry of Public Health marked World AIDS Day on Sunday under the theme “Get tested for HIV, free, easy and confidential”.

Officials of the health ministry said that more than 3,000 people in the country are infected with HIV/AIDS, 75% of whom are men and 25% women, including a small number of children under the age of fifteen.

According to MoPH, out of 12,000 suspected infections, 3,000 of them have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.

“3229 cases of AIDS have been registered in Afghanistan, of which 75% are men and 25% are women. Likewise, 195 of them are children under the age of 15,” said Habibullah Akhundzada, deputy minister of health services.

Economic problems, immigration, blood transfusions with contaminated equipment, low level of awareness among people, illiteracy, and drug addiction are said to be factors behind the increase of AIDS in the country.

Meanwhile, MoPH has expressed hope and said that the ministry will deal with this disease with a small budget.

“Five percent of AIDS cases are among drug addicts and we tried to help AIDS patients as much as possible with all the economic problems,” said Haidar Khan, head of MoPH’s disease prevention unit.

On the other hand, officials said that the spread of the disease in Afghanistan is 0.1 percent.

Based on statistics, Afghanistan has one of the least numbers of people infected with AIDS in the world.

“Until now, 3,292 people are suffering from HIV disease, of which 27% are aware of their disease and 9.5% are under treatment,” said Mohammad Akhtar, WHO’s program manager for Afghanistan.

According to figures, the number of people suffering from this disease in the world totals more than 38 million people, and more than 600,000 people died from the disease last year.