At a meeting Saturday in Kabul, experts warned that Afghanistan must act now to prevent a major expansion of HIV/AIDS caused by needle sharing. Among factors that could spread the virus: widespread poverty and an increasing number of refugees returning from Iran and Pakistan, where they tried injecting heroin for the first time.

"HIV in Afghanistan is not yet a pandemic but can become in the next five years a big pandemic," said Massimo Barra, chairperson of the Development Commission of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Afghanistan supplies an estimated 80 percent of the world's opium and is trying to persuade poppy farmers to switch to growing other crops. The government says the area devoted to poppy farming fell by about 20 percent last year, but the output is thought to about the same thanks to higher yields.

Barra said Afghanistan must be careful not to follow in the steps of its neighbors. Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan had only recorded between five and 10 HIV cases 10 years ago but now have about 50,000 cases, he said. Barra called on the government to open drug treatment centers, distribute clean needles and condoms, and provide methadone treatment to get users off heroin.

Back to other news for December 5, 2005

Search the Newsroom archive