The number of HIV cases in Iran is increasing rapidly because of the increased flow of heroin into the country from Afghanistan, and an increasing number of HIV cases are being transmitted sexually, Christian Salazar, UNICEF coordinator for HIV in Iran, said recently.

Iran is located along a "key heroin smuggling route" from Afghanistan to the West, and injecting drug users (IDUs) are the highest-risk group in the country.

Iran has an adult HIV prevalence of about 0.16 per cent, but the number of cases is "skyrocketing," Salazar said, adding that in the "worst of cases we are moving toward 1 per cent or even 1.8 per cent to 1.9 per cent of the population."

Two-thirds of HIV cases in the country occur among IDUs, Salazar said, adding that increasing numbers of narcotics are coming to the country from Afghanistan. Salazar applauded Iran's "progressive and pragmatic" approach to addressing the spread of HIV and AIDS in the country, including its establishment of needle-exchange programmes for IDUs in prisons.

"We see Iran as a leader in this field, which not only hopefully will help contain the epidemic in Iran but also provide examples to other countries," he said.

Although HIV and AIDS can be a sensitive topic in Iran, which bans sex outside marriage, there is a need to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS among Iran's general population, according to Salazar.

He added that sexual HIV transmission increasingly is being seen as a "driver of the epidemic," adding that it "creates the problem ... of how to talk about sex without talking about sex."

Source: Kaiser Network 15/Jun/07