Afghan Health officials on Wednesday said that the number of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) positive cases is growing in the country.
The health officials called AIDS as a serious threat and added that around 300 positive cases have been recorded at Kabul's Infectious Disease Hospital. The numbers show that there has been a steep rise when compared to last year.
In spite of the fact that HIV patients are less in numbers in Afghanistan compared to other countries, there are concerns that HIV cases might increase if measures are not taken to create awareness. Most of the patients are refugees who returned home from the neighboring countries, chiefly from Iran.
The Health officials at Kabul's Infectious Disease Hospital warned that the number of HIV patients will increase if the government does not put a check on drug trafficking and consumption.
"HIV/AIDS cases have increased this year. 296 cases have been recorded at Kabul's Infectious Disease Hospital, 68 of them are women and remaining men," Head of Infectious Hospital Dr. Abdul Rahman Akbari told TOLOnews.
He added that unsafe sex, transfusion of HIV infected blood and drugs are the reasons behind this increase.
The main challenge in fighting this menace is the low level of awareness among the people about this disease. It is high time that the government chalks out a proper plan to make the Afghans aware about the disease and ways to prevent it.