Reuters Reports on Afghanistan's "Underground" HIV/AIDS Problem

Reuters examines the rise of HIV/AIDS in Afghanistan, where "[s]ocial stigma in a deeply conservative Muslim country has driven the disease underground and is complicating efforts to coordinate a response." According to the news service, "officially, there are 636 cases [of HIV/AIDS] in a population of about 30 million people," but health experts feel the official counts underestimate the scope of the problem, which they believe is growing. "Set alongside an almost decade-old war, desperate poverty and a government dependent on military and financial aid to reach beyond its cities, the fight against HIV and AIDS struggles to compete for the country's meager resources," the news service writes, before describing how injecting drug use (IDU), as well as a lack of HIV prevention and testing services are contributing to the spread of the disease (Robinson, 2/9).

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