Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
For 1 Egyptian with HIV, stigma too much to bear
Country has very low infection rate, but it’s growing
CAIRO — In his bedroom, there’s a drawer full of his medications — along with CDs of a popular Egyptian Muslim preacher. On the walls of the home are two paintings by his father. They’ve had a strained relationship. He opens an album and shows pictures of his mother.
His mother supported him after she discovered he was HIV positive. When the doctor initially refused to treat him, she threatened to sue him.
“I was lucky my mother was still alive,” said Ahmed, a 40-year-old who is among the around 11,000 Egyptians living with HIV. She passed away recently, and now he wants to leave Egypt. He can no longer stand the social stigma around HIV and AIDS.
Ahmed spoke to The Associated Press on condition that his full name not be used, details of his life not be given and his face not be shown in photos — a sign of how overwhelming the stigma remains here 30 years after the first case of HIV infection was discovered in Egypt.
Though it is spread more here by heterosexual contact, as well as drug use and sex work, the disease is linked in the public’s mind to same-sex intercourse and homosexuality, which are taboo.
Egypt has one of the lowest rates of HIV infection in the world, at less than 0.02 percent of the population. But the numbers of new cases have grown by 25 percent annually, according to Ahmed Khamis, UNAIDS country manager.
The Middle East-North Africa region is one of the only two regions in the world were the pace of infection is increasing, along with Eastern Europe-Central Asia.
In Egypt, that is in part because of greater reporting, but it’s also due to limited resources for prevention, workers in the field say.
Fear, ostracism and condemnation still surround HIV-AIDS. Many have the misconception that it is contagious from a touch, and the HIV-positive can face being thrown out of families — or even, in rural areas, from their villages.
Ahmed now works for the biggest of the few groups in Egypt that look after those living with HIV and AIDS, the Roaya Association for Integrated Development. The organization aims to spread awareness, break social taboos and train hospital staffers on how to deal with HIVpositive people.
“There is this idea that people living with HIV are aliens and unproductive people just waiting for their death bed,” said Nasser Hashem, the group’s civil society manager.
UNAIDS has been working with the Health Ministry and NGOs on awareness campaigns and outreach to youth, even engaging with the country’s large movie industry to encourage films that positively address HIV issues.
But the Global Fund, a major financier, suspended most grants to Egypt last year because of irregularities in the Health Ministry’s use of its money, according to the Fund. The government has increased funding, but the total overall hardly covers treatment and doesn’t deal with prevention.