A New Sorrow for Afghanistan: AIDS Joins List

This story shocked me. I am used to reading about the fact that 90% of the worlds' opium is grown in Afghanistan and I am defintely used to hearing about how the efforts to eradicate the opium crop are driving farmers into the arms of the Taliban. Hearing about the AIDS epidemic reaching Afghanistan is just sad. The lack of medical resources for testing and treatment of AIDS means that the extent of the epidemic is unknown. Antiviral treatments are not available. In a country where homosexuality and extramarital sex are illegal, the social stigma associated with being diagnosed with AIDS is detrimental to education and treatment.

I was shocked to learn how rampant injection drug use is in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan, the biggest opium- and heroin-producing country in the world, has nearly one million drug users, according to United Nations estimates. Most users still smoke the drug, but five years ago, injectable heroin hit the streets of Kabul, the capital. Now there are an estimated 19,000 intravenous drug users here, according to the World Bank. Addicts are not difficult to find, living in bombed-out buildings in the old part of the city and in Kota-e-Sangi, a neighborhood on the city’s south side.

Injection drug use, prostitution, lack of testing of the blood supply and the punishments for out-of-wedlock sex are creating a disaster in Afghanistan. Read the whole thing.