A private infectious disease specialist, Kelly had previously undertaken AIDS
research for the US National Intelligence Council as well as other diseases for
the USAID, the principal foreign aid agency of the United States, while
Eberstadt is a scholar at American Enterprise Institute, a conservative
Washington-based think tank.
"An important take home message for all Muslim nations is that real behaviours
on the streets are sometimes in marked contrast to the expected behaviours of
good Muslims and that is something that leaders in these countries must deal
with," Kelly told AFP.
The report said that even though the Muslim world was home to behaviors such as
premarital sex, adultery, prostitution, homosexuality, and intravenous drug use
-- which help spread the HIV virus that causes AIDS -- many governments have
been slow to respond to the rapidly spreading disease.
"What is especially troubling to behold is the reluctance to admit that Muslims
engage in exactly those same dangerous behaviors that support the transmission
and spread of HIV/AIDS elsewhere," it said, blaming "deeply rooted cultural and
religious attitudes.
"This reluctance even to recognize the problem will only accelerate the
epidemic and make it more difficult for the international community to provide
meaningful support and treatment," the report said.
"We would have thought the Muslim world was in a sense vaccinated from this
kind of pandemic but in fact the dreadful news is that it is not, said Michael
Birt, the director of National Bureau of Asian Research's center for health.
"Now with the Muslim world becoming involved, its truly a global crisis," he
told AFP.
Kelly proposed "sweeping legal changes" to reduce the social stigma associated
with the disease and protect the AIDS sufferers in Muslim nations "to ensure
them medical treatment, employment and discourage suicide."
The Muslim world of more than one billion people covers three continents --
from Albania and Turkey in Europe, across countries bordering the Sahara in
Northern Africa, and through the Persian Gulf and South Asia to Malaysia and
Indonesia in the east, the report said.
Officially, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates
the total HIV population of North Africa, the Middle East, and predominantly
Muslim Asia at nearly one million people.
At the end of 2003, UNAIDS estimated that up to 420,000 in Mali, 180,000 people
in Indonesia, 150,000 in Pakistan, and 61,000 in Iran had HIV/AIDS.
"Those numbers, however, are severely understated," Kelly and Eberstadt said in
a separate report on Foreign Policy magazine, published by the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
They said UNAIDS figures depended upon surveillance data -- "thus a lack of
information can be taken as a lack of infection."
UNAIDS data on the number of people living with HIV/AIDS is completely missing
for Afghanistan, Turkey, and Somalia, "all nations with large numbers of
at-risk populations," they said.
The study cited Iran and Bangladesh as among Muslim governments that seem to be
combating the problem effectively.
"Iran's President Mohammad Khatami and his administration have been very
forthcoming about the extent of the epidemic and the urgent need to control the
further spread of the disease," it said.
"Perhaps surprising, given the Iranian regime's conservative reputation, needle
exchange programs also have been offered in high drug-use areas of Tehran, and
syringes are now sold over the counter in many pharmacies," the report said.
Kelley said some of Iran's anti-AIDS programs "are more liberal than some
overseas programs funded by United States," citing condom distribution as among
areas opposed by some Christian groups.
Hopefully, she said, the incoming administration of hardliner President Mahmood
Ahmadinejad would continue and expand upon the education and prevention
efforts.
AFP/Reuters
Washington - An AIDS crisis is threatening to overwhelm many predominantly
Muslim countries but their leaders remain in a state of denial and are doing
little to stem the deadly problem, a pioneering study says.
