Iran　&　HIV/AIDS

Health Official: 60,000 AIDS/HIV patients in Iran 5/17/05 Bushehr, May 16, IRNA-Sixty-thousand Iranians are afflicted with AIDS/HIV, which is ten times the average global figure, said Deputy Minister of Health for Research Affairs Hossein Malek-Afzali in Bushehr on Monday.

Malek-Afzali however told IRNA that Iran is now in a better position in terms of containing AIDS whereas global statistics in recent years show an increase in the rate in which the disease is spreading.

The youth, informing them of the ways the deadly disease are transferred and how to prevent it.

According to the official, about 100 AIDS research centers are currently operating in Iran , majority of which are in Tehran and the rest are in the cities of Shiraz , Isfahan , Mashhad, Tabriz , Kermanshah, Yazd and Kerman .

Four thousand AIDS control projects are annually implemented in Iran and 3,000 Iranian and 1,000 foreign articles are published every year in domestic and foreign language journals in Iran .

HIV & AIDS in Iran : Problems and Solutions  March 15, 2005 By: Yang Lim

How much do you know about HIV/AIDS? Do you agree or disagree with the following?

1) Only homosexuals can get AIDS.
2) You can get AIDS by shaking hands with an infected individual.
3) You can get AIDS by sharing plates and utensils.

If you answered “yes” to any of the above questions, then you are not alone. Although various efforts to educate people about HIV/AIDS have helped to dispel several misconceptions, many of them, like the ones above, persist.

It was only two decades ago that AIDS was first discovered and classified as GRIDS (Gay Related Immune Deficiency Syndrome) in North America . That name was changed in the latter part of the 1980s when researches realized that this disease was not exclusive to homosexuals. However, many Iranians still perceive AIDS as a “gay disease” that can only be spread through homosexual intercourse.

Poverty exacerbates the presence of HIV/AIDS in Iran . Those who are poor and drug-addicted are more likely to contract the disease and be marginalized from society. Iranian law defines drug addicts as criminals however many use drugs as a way to cope with their daily struggles to survive. These individuals, like the prostitutes and impoverished people who appear in the film, live in isolated conditions that are strikingly separate from the rest of society.

It is important to recognize Iran ’s, as well as other countries’, ongoing fight against HIV/AIDS and to increase the public’s acceptance of those who have the disease. In Edmonton , such work is being done by organizations such as HIV Edmonton, The Edmonton Persons Living Positive Society, and the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.

HIV/AIDS: "Information...is not enough to overcome stigmatizing attitudes...people who are relatively well informed about how HIV can be transmitted may continue to fear casual contact with people living with HIV/AIDS.”

  Overview on HIV/AIDS and women in Iran Masoumeh Ebrahimi Tavani (MS.M),

Midwifery Principal Officer, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran , I.R.Iran