Egypt HIV cases jump six-fold, report says

CAIRO, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Cases of the virus that causes AIDS have risen six-fold in Egypt, moving the Arab country toward an HIV epidemic, a government report said.

The number of people reported living with the human immunodeficiency virus in Egypt rose to 3,735 by the end of 2008, a six-fold increase since 1994, the report by the Information and Decision Support Center, the research arm of the Egyptian Cabinet, showed.

Of the 2008 total, 963 people, or 25.8 percent of the reported HIV patients, had developed AIDS, the report said.

Local non-governmental organizations dealing with HIV and AIDS and the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS said the figure could be far higher, the Integrated Regional Information Networks reported.

The Egyptian Cabinet report said HIV cases could be found in all Egyptian administrative divisions, with the exception of northern and southern areas of the Sinai Peninsula.

Egypt's two most populous cities, Cairo and Alexandria, had the most cases, the report said.

Three-quarters of Egyptians living with HIV were age 25 to 49, the most productive segment of society, the report said.

While Egypt's number of HIV and AIDS cases was low compared with those in other countries, the report's findings shocked many in this predominantly conservative Muslim society, where extramarital sex is banned, said IRIN, an independent news agency associated with the United Nations focusing on humanitarian stories.

"Risky sexual activities can't be controlled," Magdy Badran, a leading Egyptian immunologist, told IRIN. "Also, there's a real expansion of drug addiction in this country. These are things that can spread the disease dramatically."