HIV/AIDS to Become Serious Health Risk in Somalia: UN Report

HIV/AIDS to become serious health risk in Somalia: UN report

NAIROBI, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) — The United Nations has warned that HIV/AIDS will soon become a major health problem in war-wracked Somalia without concerted efforts to contain the factors fueling the epidemic.

In its latest monthly report on the humanitarian situation in Somalia available here Wednesday, the UN said the current infection rates in the Horn of Africa nation could rise dramatically.

“Findings show that HIV will soon become a major health problem if concerted efforts are not put in place to contain factors fueling the epidemic,” said the report which cited a survey carried out last year.

The UN inter-agency report on the overall humanitarian situation in Somalia, which has had no functioning government for 14 years following the collapse in 1991 of the government of Mohamed Siad Barre, highlights among its findings the sobering results of the country’s first-ever nationwide HIV/AIDS prevalence study.

The survey found the lawless nation’s average HIV infection rate to be 0.9 percent but with “zonal variations”, particularly in its two semi-autonomous regions of Puntland and Somaliland, where the average was one and 1.4 percent respectively.

Poor education, high mobility, the transfusion of unsafe blood and negative cultural practices, including female circumcision and commercial sex, are some of the “vulnerability factors” the report said needed to be addressed.

The survey covered multiple groups, including pregnant women attending antenatal clinics, and tuberculosis patients with sexually transmitted diseases, among others.

Fortunately, the report said political commitment to fighting HIV/ AIDS is growing. An anti-retroviral treatment program was recently launched in the northern town of Hargeisa.

“Voluntary Counseling and Testing,” and “Prevention of Mother to Children Transmission” programs are already underway with the help of the World Food Program, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization.