HIV Infections Rise in Syria

The number of HIV positive people in Syria has been on the rise in the last few years, the website Day Press said in a September 26 article.

It quoted the Syrian health ministry as saying the country has 450 AIDS patients.



But a doctor who requested anonymity told the website that the real number of HIV positive individuals exceeded 1,500 and he said there were many undiscovered cases of people with the disease.



The doctor linked the increase in the numbers of infections to factors such as unsafe sexual practices among young people, drug use as well as unemployment, late marriages and population migration.



The website urged the health ministry to make HIV tests compulsory for couples intending to marry. Currently, only Syrian women about to marry foreign nationals have to undergo the test, Rowa Horania, an official at the department of health education in the health ministry, told the website.



Horania said that it would be difficult to require HIV tests from couples wishing to marry because of the relatively high cost of 30 US dollars.



The article reported that police have arrested 40 women prostitutes working in the countryside around Damascus who were HIV positive.



The website Syria Steps also reported a link between the rise in prostitution and the increase in AIDS cases in the country.



In a September 27 article, the website said that prostitution had increased in Syria in recent years because following the US invasion of Iraq, many Iraqi women had come to the country and started working in this field.



It added that prostitutes also originated from other areas such as Morocco, eastern Europe, Russia and Somalia as well as Syria.



The website urged the government to monitor prostitution more closely and give accurate figures of HIV infections in the country.