Press Release from Weill Cornell Medical College Newsoom
DOHA, QATAR (June 17, 2014) — HIV epidemics are emerging among people who inject drugs in several countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Though HIV infection levels were historically very low in the Middle East and North Africa, substantial levels of HIV transmission and emerging HIV epidemics have been documented among people who inject drugs in at least one-third of the countries of this region, according to findings published today in PLOS Medicine.
The HIV epidemics among people who inject drugs (PWID) are recent overall, starting largely around 2003 and continuing to grow in most countries. However, they vary across the region. In countries such as Afghanistan, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Morocco, Oman, and Pakistan, on average between 10 and 15 percent of PWID are HIV-positive. The HIV epidemics in these countries appear to be growing; in Pakistan, for example, the fraction of PWID who are HIV-infected increased from 11 percent in 2005 to 25 percent in 2011. In Iran, the HIV epidemic among PWID has stabilized at about 15 percent. There are, however, other countries where limited HIV transmission was found among PWID, such as in Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. Continue reading...
