According to Afghanistan’s Public Health Ministry, the country’s HIV prevalence is low but transmission risk remains high, Reuters reports (reuters.com, 5/26).
The article reports that 435 cases of HIV have been recorded in Afghanistan but notes that the ministry believes that as many as 2,000 to 2,500 people may be living with the virus.
The ministry adds that “war, poverty, illiteracy, massive international and external displacement, the high level of poppy cultivation, drug trafficking and usage, the existence of commercial and unsafe sex, unsafe injection practices and blood transfusion are potential risk factors for [HIV’s] spread.”
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Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I think that it's OK to be angry. I am sometimes—it's natural—we are HIV positive. but I always try to not let myself stay there too long. Let yourself feel you are human. You should not beat yourself up about being angry."
