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May 17, 2008
Saturday
18:43:40
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Sponsored by:
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Innovative BiomedicaLAB
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Global overview
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Sub-Saharan Africa
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Middle East and North Africa
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Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia
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Asia and the Pacific
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Latin America and the Caribbean
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More Developed Countries (MDCs)
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Middle East and North Africa
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With the exception of a few countries, systematic surveillance of the epidemic is not well developed in North Africa and the Middle East. Furthermore, there is inadequate monitoring of the situation among populations at higher risk of
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HIV
exposure, such as sex workers, injecting drug users and men who have sex with men. This means that potential epidemics in these populations are being overlooked.
In many countries, available information is based only on case reporting, and suggests that around 480 000 people (range: 200 000–1.4 million) are living with
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HIV
in the region, which has a prevalence of 0.2% of the adult population (range: 0.1–0.6%). Some 75 000 people (range: 21 000–310 000) are believed to have become newly infected in 2003, and
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AIDS
killed about 24 000 (range: 9900–62 000) that year. Among young people aged 15–24, 0.2% of women (range: 0.2–0.5%) and 0.1% of men (range: 0.1–0.2%) were living with
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HIV
by the end of 2003.
Seroprevalence of HIV-1 for Low-Risk Populations: North Africa
Sudan is by far the worst-affected country in the region. Its overall
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HIV
prevalence is nearly 2.3% (range: 0.7–7.2%); the epidemic is most severe in the southern part of the country. Heterosexual intercourse is the principal mode of transmission. The virus is spreading in the general population, infecting women more rapidly than men. Among pregnant women in the south,
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HIV
prevalence is reported to be six-to-eight times higher than around Khartoum in the north. In Somalia, the epidemic is believed to have similar dynamics, but few surveillance data are available.
Morocco has expanded its surveillance system based on pregnant women and patients attending clinics for sexually transmitted infections, to also include sex workers and prisoners. In 2003, prevalence was 0.13% among pregnant women, 0.23% among patients at sexually-transmitted-infection clinics, 0.83% among prisoners and 2.27 % among female sex workers.
In some countries in the region,
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HIV
infection appears concentrated among injecting drug users. Substantial transmission through contaminated injecting equipment has been reported in Bahrain, Libya and Oman. However, there is insufficient behavioural and serosurveillance among injecting drug users, resulting in an incomplete picture of
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HIV
spread.
Unsafe blood transfusion and blood-collection practices still pose a risk of
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HIV
transmission in some countries of the region, although efforts are being made to expand blood screening and sterile procedures in health-care systems to full coverage. In addition, there is concern that the virus may be spreading undetected among men who have sex with men. Male-to-male sexual behaviour is illegal and widely condemned in the region and the lack of surveillance means that knowledge of the epidemic’s path in this population is poor.
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The excerpted text and figures integrated herein were mainly from the:
unless indicated, otherwise.
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