- KABUL - The World Health
Organisation (WHO) has warned that war-torn Afghanistan, one of the world's
poorest countries, faces a potential Aids disaster.
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- Risk factors such as intravenous drug use and unsafe
blood transfusions had prompted United Nations' agencies, the government
and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to join forces to try to stop
its spread, the WHO said in a statement.
The warning comes as 1501 delegates from all over the country gather in
the capital, Kabul, for a grand tribal council, or Loya Jirga, to choose
a government for the next two years, a key step in the country's path
to stability after 23 years of conflict.
"The risk factors in Afghanistan lead health officials to warn of
the need for early interventions to prevent a potentially rapid spread
of HIV in Afghanistan," said the statement yesterday.
WHO has said previously that a limited number of HIV cases had been reported
in certain parts of Afghanistan, but some 100,000 Afghans were affected
in neighbouring Pakistan.
"The poor state of blood transfusion facilities throughout the country
is of primary concern," it said.
Refugees from more than 20 years of bloodshed were particularly vulnerable
to HIV because of exposure to sexual abuse and violence and lack of education.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has repatriated
a total of 920,000 Afghans since March, and some 200,000 others have come
back on their own from neighbouring Iran and Pakistan - a quarter of the
more than four million Afghans displaced by 23 years of war.
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- http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1230800a12,FF.html
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- Comment
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- From Ted Sterling
6-11-2
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- The WHO is at it again. Note how they mention "intravenous
drug use and unsafe blood transfusions." So, we are supposed to think
that, all of a sudden, Afghanis are shooting drugs and lining up for blood
transfusions? Nowhere is there mention of the common homosexual practices
of the Arab world...that's just not politically-correct. In any case,
AIDS is about to talk a brisk walk through Afghanistan...big surprise.
The world population reduction program continues.
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