JOHANNESBURG, June 29 (PlusNews)  –  A new report by the National Bureau of Asian Research, a think-tank based in Seattle in the US, suggests that HIV/AIDS is threatening to overwhelm many predominantly Muslim nations while their leaders remain “in a state of denial”.

In one of the most comprehensive AIDS studies on Islamic nations – including those in northern Africa – lead researchers Laura Kelley and Nicholas Eberstadt warn of serious repercussions that could deprive these countries of some of their best, brightest and most economically productive members.

They charge that governments are still slow to respond to the pandemic, despite the followers of Islam also engaging in risky behaviours such as premarital sex, commercial sex and intravenous drug use.

“What is especially troubling is the reluctance to admit that Muslims engage in exactly those same dangerous behaviours that support the transmission of HIV/AIDS elsewhere ... reluctance to recognise the problem will only accelerate the epidemic and make it more difficult for the international community to provide meaningful support and treatment,” the report notes.

UNAIDS puts the total HIV-positive Muslim population of North Africa, the Middle East and Asia at around one million people.

However, the study said these numbers were “severely understated” because UNAIDS estimates depended on inadequate surveillance data, resulting in the "lack of information being construed as a lack of infections".

The researchers recommended that Muslim nations mount sweeping legislative and social changes as well as surveillance programmes if they were to respond effectively to their spreading HIV epidemics.

They also highlighted the opportunity for the US and other Western nations to help Muslim societies with the ensuing AIDS crisis.

“In cooperation with Muslim leaders, the West can assist in the design and implementation of culturally acceptable and appropriate behavioural change and counselling programmes,” the report concludes.

Copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2005

29 June  2005