Two thousand new AIDS cases in Morocco in 2007

27/11/2007

The annual UNAIDS report has revealed an increase in Morocco's rate of HIV infection. To combat public attitudes surrounding the virus, health organisations plan a World AIDS Day march in Casablanca.

By Imrane Binoual for Magharebia in Casablanca – 27/11/07

[File] Hakima Himmich said AIDS and other sexually-transmitted diseases are "a real danger to be feared".

The annual report from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), released ahead of World AIDS Day on Saturday (December 1st), said that while HIV infection has stabilised worldwide, AIDS "remains the top cause of death in Africa." According to UN statistics disclosed in the November 20th report, the number of people in Morocco carrying the virus rose from 18,000 in 2006 to 20,000 this year.

Morocco must confront the silence and stigma surrounding AIDS, argued Ahmed Douraidi, a human rights activist and national co-ordinator for one of the country’s main AIDS control NGOs, the Association to Fight AIDS. To further this awareness campaign, ALCS will help sponsor the "March to Fight AIDS" in Casablanca on World AIDS Day. "This is the first event that [the ALCS] is organising with partner associations with whom we have just set up a network of associations to fight AIDS," Douraidi told Magharebia.

The Morocco AIDS-Enterprise association works to connect AIDS-control NGOs with Moroccan business leaders. Chairman Brahim Sahib stressed the importance of setting up this network and confirmed that his association would be playing an active role in the December march. "AIDS is becoming a serious threat; we must fight it with all means available," he said.

"Getting business leaders on board is really important in raising awareness about the damage caused by HIV and in the success of any such programmes."

These kinds of initiatives to counter HIV are partly responsible for reduced infection rates worldwide, the UNAIDS report notes. However, ALCS president Professor Hakima Himmich feels that focusing on such figures "could actually be a disincentive in our work to combat this killer disease."

One of the most important routes for transmission of the virus is through sexual activity and this, according to Himich, is where the alarm needs to be raised in Morocco.

"[With] a very high number of sexually transmitted infections, around 350,000 new cases in Morocco, there is a real danger to be feared," Himmich said.

"On top of this, 40% of people with AIDS are women, and 2.4% are working in the sex industry," she noted. "This puts us on a similar footing to Sub-Saharan countries affected by AIDS, such as Senegal."