Arab world has lowest rate of AIDS
Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Wednesday, May 3, 2000
WASHINGTON -- The Arab world, ruled by conservative mores, has the
lowest rate of Aids in the world.
A CIA report on AIDS said the Middle East and North Africa region has
the lowest HIV infection rate.
"Conservative social mores, climatic factors, and the high level of
health spending in the oil-producing states tend to limit some globally
prevalent diseases, such as HIV/AIDS and malaria," the report, released on
Monday, said.
But the CIA said another reason for the low rate of AIDS is "probably
due in part to above-average underreporting because of the stigma associated
with the disease in Muslim societies."
The report, entitled "The Global Infections Disease Threat and Its
Implications for the United States," was released as the National Security
Council deemed AIDS as a national security issue for the United States.
White House Spokesman Joe Lockhart cited what he termed the "staggering" and
"destabilizing" numbers of deaths AIDS is causing in some African countries.
"They have an impact on us," he said. "We have an interest in Africa, as
far as our own national security, and we need to look at this problem -- as
the NSC has done, very much so this year, but going back over the last
couple of years as a national security issue."
The CIA report, completed in January, said "new and reemerging
infectious diseases will pose a rising global health threat and will
complicate U.S. and global security over the next 20 years. These diseases
will endanger U.S. citizens at home and abroad, threaten U.S. armed forces
deployed overseas, and exacerbate social and political instability in key
countries and regions in which the United States has significant interests."
The CIA report said that terrorist might seek to spread diseases such as
AIDS and malaria in biological attacks.
Wednesday, May 3, 2000
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