Accotrding Carlotta Gall of the New York Times in her article "Silently, AIDS Comes to Afghanistan" which was published on March 18, AIDS has found its way into Afghanistan. AIDS and HIV remained outside of Afghanstan for a long time during the strict Islamic rule of the Taliban and the two prior decades of war. Now it is slowly creeping into the country among the people. The artcle tells about a man whose son has the sickness and whose wife died only 4 months ago from it. Reports and studies say that Afghanistan had only 69 cases of AIDS and three deaths in the past but experts argue that the number is dangerously wrong due to the difficulty of taking the surveys and there credibiltiy. The infection seems to remain underground and is "shrouded in ignorance and stigma as the government struggles with the help of American and Nato forces to rebuild the country in the face of a new offensive by Taliban insurgents". It is beleived that the number of infected is now roughly 1000 to 2000 afghans.
I think this could prove to be a big problem for the country. With the war and reconstruction going on little aid and attention could be paid to health and AIDS problems which could mean lots of pain and trouble for the infected peopel and the people at risk of infection.
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Aids is present all over the world. Whether it is just 3 cases, 69, or even 300,000. We need to take additional steps to fight aids. In Afghanistan, this is going to be a big problem. Just like peter said because of the addition to the war.
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