CAIRO,
December 1 (IslamOnline.net) - As the number of AIDS patients has
risen to a surprising - yet alarming - levels in Arab and Islamic
countries over the last few years, many take the blame for the
shortcomings to deep-rooted reticence about discussing the epidemic
and reluctance of unscrupulous governments and apparently conservative
societies to admit it.
Coinciding
with World AIDS Day, Saudi Arabia announced Monday, December 1, that
6,787 are living with HIV infection, five times higher than the number
of the cases reported by the conservative Islamic kingdom in early
August 2002.
In
Indonesia, the World's largest Muslim country has a rapidly escalating
level of infection among prostitutes, their customers, injection drug
users and prisoners.
"Indonesia
has one of the fastest growing epidemics in the world," Elizabeth
Pisani, an epidemiologist with Aksi Stop AIDS, an AIDS prevention and
care group, was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying.
In
Malaysia, the country now has around 57,000 reported cases of HIV/AIDS
compared to 54,000 as of June this year.
But
the real number of could easily be more than double the official
figure, as many fail to report their condition for fear of stigma or
discrimination in conservative mainly-Muslim Malaysia.
In
Afghanistan, the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned that increasing
intravenous drug use could see the war-ravaged central Asian risking
an AIDS epidemic.
Indian
Kashmir, with a 10-million population mostly made up of Muslims, has
an estimated 20,000 HIV cases.
In
the Middle East countries, the official number of people suffering
from the disease hit 750,000.
Much
Bigger
However,
many analysts said the situation is much more grave, citing unofficial
accounts showing the number of those afflicted with HIV/AIDS in on the
rise at disturbing levels.
While
on paper Indonesia says it doesn't have much of a problem with
HIV/AIDS, the World Health Organization and UNAIDS warned in a report
this month that the epidemic is in danger of leaping from the
high-risk groups and into the mainstream in the Asian country.
"The
gap is wider between reported numbers and estimated ones of those
plagued by HIV/AIDS in regional countries, due to a plethora of
reasons including governments' blackout of the true numbers,"
Ibrahim al-Kirdani of the World Health Organization's Eastern
Mediterranean Region office.
In
Egypt, the official number of people having contracted the disease is
1,200m, with the authorities' insistence to underestimate the problem
in the most populous Arab countries.
But
the estimated number is up to some 8,000, said Zuheir Hallaj, a
Cairo-based WHO representative.
Hallaj
warned that this stage is "pre-epidemic" period where the
disease could be controlled and after which it could slip out of
hands.
"What
does the government care about is to hide numbers and avert public
realization of the crisis," said Magdi Said, a former doctor at
Cairo's Endemic Diseases Hospital dealing with AIDS cases.
Lack
Of Political Will
Meanwhile,
renowned Egyptian writer Salama Ahmed Salama, pointed a finger at the
lack of political will to face the issue extremely seriously.
"Many
Arab and Islamic countries do rather fear the outrage of the public if
they declare the true figures," already taking the toll of
economic hardships and political stagnation, Salama said.
A
long-time resident of Germany, Salama hoped that Muslim and Arab
countries would follow in the footsteps of West in "facing the
problem head-on".
Stigma
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"Many Arab and Islamic countries do rather fear the outrage of the public if they declare the true figures," Salama
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Also,
the HIV-related stigma and discrimination most Muslim and Arab
societies feel cause untold suffering to people living with the
disease, mostly accused of catching the disease through illegal and
unreligious sexual interaction.
"This
stigma is largely out of fear. And this fear arises out of
misunderstanding about the mood of transmission of the infection, its
relation to socially unacceptable behaviors and the belief that HIV is
a fatal disease" said Hussein Al- Gezairy Regional Director of
WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region office.
Gezairy
said in a message on the World AIDS Day that as new therapies have
been introduced, HIV/AIDS is now regarded as chronic disease that
needs unconscious treatment, rather than a fatal disease.
In
Malaysia, Drug addicts sharing infected needles made up nearly 80
percent of HIV/AIDS cases while heterosexual transmission was the
second highest cause, at nearly 12 percent.
As
Terrorism, WMDs
Noticeably,
the rich countries are also coming under fire for the lack of action
to help fight the disease in developing countries with the same vigor
with which they have moved to combat terrorism and proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction in the AIDS-afflicted countries.
In
an interview with the BBC a few days ago, U.N. Secretary General Kofi
Annan said he was "very angry, distressed and helpless", as
the world lacks political will to face the disease.
In
a rather skeptical cunning note, Annan said that the AIDS epidemic has
become the world's biggest security threats along with terrorism and
weapons of mass destruction.
In
Afghanistan, where the U.S. forces still make presence for fighting
the remnants of the Taliban regime, a less active pace of development
is going on in the fight of the disease
"If
we don't start raising public awareness of the issue, and focus on
prevention, increasing drug use is a serious factor that could push
Afghanistan towards the risk of an HIV/AIDS epidemic s," UNICEF's
Afghanistan head of health Peter Salama said in a statement ahead of
World AIDS day.
The
governments also disappointed that their demands for the right to
import generic medicines to replace the branded products from the
major U.S. and European pharmaceutical companies that they cannot
afford, had fallen on deaf ears.
Little
action is done, as the companies insist on keeping the rights of the
pharmaceutical companies are protected by a World Trade Organization
(WTO) "agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual
property rights".
Changing
But
hope is still there, with many saying the situation could be much
better in Arab and Muslim countries within coming years with current
efforts to raise public awareness, promote media campaigns and abandon
a political manipulation of the disease.
In
Indian Kashmir, where public discussion of sex is taboo, has startled
elements of its conservative Muslim society by launching its first
billboard campaign promoting condoms to combat AIDS.
Signs
in the Muslim-majority summer capital Srinagar and other major Kashmir
cities feature a huge picture of a condom and a graphic of a man
hugging a woman.
"Know
AIDS for AIDS," the billboards read in the city, where previous
anti-AIDS efforts have stressed Islam's ban on sex outside marriage.
Other
campaigns sought the help of religious scholars to raise awareness of
the disease and promote religious deterrence to avoid the disease.
"Talks
already began with religious people to do this, they are more than
ready for helping us," said Kirdani of the U.N. regional office.
Kirdani
has recently attended a conference discussing AIDS in Saudi Arabia,
something he said "an indication how the host country begin
another new positive attitude to face the crisis".
About
45 percent of the HIV/AIDS cases in the Saudi Arabia, whose population
hits 22 million including some six million foreigners, were sexually
transmitted and that about 77 percent of those infected were male.
But
Islam against all forms of extra-marital sex contacts, considering it haram
(forbidden), and has long played a key role in turning followers
away from one of its main causes.
Five
people worldwide die of AIDS every minute of every day. HIV has hit
every corner of the globe, infecting more than 42 million men, women
and children, 5 million of them last year alone.
In
2002 alone, AIDS claimed 3 million people last year. That's over 8,000
people every day. But the story does not end there: just under 14,000
new cases of HIV infections occur every single day.
