- Hossam Fazola
- BBC News
Since the height of the spread of HIV in the nineties, the world has made great strides in dealing with it, and despite that, the virus has claimed the lives of more than 40 million people.
Since its peak in the 1990s, the world has made great strides in dealing with HIV, and succeeded in reducing new cases of infection by less than half. Yet HIV has claimed the lives of more than 40 million people worldwide so far.
According to WHO data, the global number of new HIV infections decreased by 32% between 2010 and 2021.
Although the Middle East and North Africa region has the lowest HIV burden in the world, the number of new infections increased by 33% in the same period, according to a report shared by the United Nations AIDS Program with BBC News Arabic.
This made the region one of only three regions in the world – along with Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Latin America – where HIV is still on the rise.
While some believe that the increase in new HIV infections in the Middle East and North Africa region is due to more widespread use of HIV testing than before, experts believe that the problem may be more complex.
“The positive cases we are discovering through increased testing are not old cases,” says Dr. Nisreen Rizk, an HIV specialist at the American University of Beirut. Most of them are newly infected people, she adds, “and this indicates our failure to stop the spread of HIV in the region.”
“There is certainly increased awareness of HIV in the Middle East and North Africa region, but it is still not enough.”
According to Rizk, there is a lack of “accurate scientific information” in the region when it comes to HIV.
A BBC News Arabic team took to the streets of Beirut and Cairo polling people what they know regarding HIV and what they think is the reason behind the rise in cases.
More than half of those surveyed said they “don’t know much regarding HIV and AIDS”. One participant said he had never heard of him. Some added that they were not interested in knowing more regarding the disease, as it was only related to “illegal relationships”.
In the Arab region – and across the world – people who inject drugs, men who have sex with men, transgender people, and sex workers are among the most vulnerable to contracting the virus. But does this mean that the rest of the groups are far from the disease?
Sherine El-Feki, Regional Director of the United Nations Program on AIDS, answers in her interview with BBC News Arabic: “These vulnerable groups are not isolated groups from society and are in contact with all other groups, and now we see the spread of the virus in different countries, especially among young people. Therefore, we are striving to spread awareness regarding the matter.”
Not only is the Middle East and North Africa region one of three regions with an increasing number of new HIV cases, the region also has the lowest HIV treatment coverage rate in the world.
According to the latest report by the United Nations Program on AIDS (UNAIDS), only 50% of people living with HIV in the Middle East and North Africa region have access to treatment. This number is lower for women, with a rate of no more than 44%, and for children, with only 40%.
While treatment is widely available, stigma around HIV is a barrier to people wanting to be tested or seeking treatment. As a result, only 67% of people living with HIV know they have it, according to the UNAIDS report.
The UN program warns that ineffective testing and suboptimal treatment lead to underdiagnosis, continued transmission of infection, delayed treatment and a high death rate.
image copyright Average AP
Only 67% of people living with HIV know they have it
Ahmed (not his real name) told the BBC that he suspected he had HIV for 5 years before finally daring to take a test last year, when he confirmed he had the disease.
“I am still in good health until now, and I will continue to do so as long as I receive my treatment,” Ahmed says. “But an early diagnosis might have made a difference in my mental and physical health.”
In countries where same-sex sexual relations are criminalized, many people like Ahmed consider the prospect of prosecution and potentially life-threatening stigma before they consider HIV testing.
“Some people see HIV as a death sentence,” Elfeki says. But, she adds, thanks to modern medicine and public health, “HIV is now preventable, coexistent and treatable”.
As part of its efforts to spread awareness of the disease, the United Nations is commemorating the International Day of Unbelief, which comes this year under the slogan of equality.
Al-Feki says that the biggest obstacle in the global fight once morest HIV currently is inequality.
“Inequality prevents people from getting the best treatment for testing as well as prevention.”
“move the kaleidoscope”
While one of the most important forms of inequality is poverty and the inability to access educational and medical services, strict laws and suppression of personal freedoms is another form of discrimination.
In some sub-Saharan African countries where same-sex relations are criminalized, as in many countries in the Middle East and North Africa region, gay men were 5 times more likely to contract HIV than in other countries in the same region that do not have such relationships. Laws.
“How do you come forward and disclose your condition when you are exposed to dangerous practices? … Gender inequality is a real vulnerability for women and girls dealing with HIV,” says El-Feki.
UNAIDS is working with the World Health Organization on a campaign in December 2022 to help 5,000 people in the Middle East and North Africa region get tested for the virus and access treatment confidentially, ensuring their privacy.
“The HIV problem in the Middle East and North Africa is like a kaleidoscope, you can look at it – as many governments have done – and see that there are relatively fewer cases than in other parts of the world…but we encourage governments to take action,” Elfeki says. This is a kaleidoscope and they see that because we have relatively fewer HIV cases than the rest of the world, we can be one of the first to get rid of it.”
