HIV/AIDS in Iraq

Officially the number of AIDS-HIV infections in Iraq has been low. The virus came to Iraq via contaminated blood in 1987 and thus hit haemophiliacs first, although the virus is often associated with foreigners, prostitutes and homosexuals and thus there is often little compassion shown to people known to be infected.

The Ba'athists relocated Iraqis found to be infected with AIDS or HIV to a segregated medical facilty. When the regime fell, many hospitals were looted and patients were left to wander the streets.

As early as 2004 the United Nations IRIN news service reported on the challenges involved in AIDS-HIV treatment and education in Iraq.

The AIDS Research Centre in Baghdad is the only hospital in Iraq that offers free treatment to all Iraqis living with the virus, although the hospital often faces chronic shortages of medicine. As of 2007, the Iraqi government is saddled with having to rebuild its health care institutions in the aftermath of three recent wars, international sanctions and on-going sectarian violence.

Iraqis who are found to be infected with the virus may become the target of hostility and even violence by their neighbors, family or a milita based on the belief that the virus is proof that the patient has engaged in indecent acts.

In 2005 representatives from the Iraqi Health Ministry traveled to Jordan to speak with public health officials about Jordanian efforts to stop the spread of the pandemic.

In 2006 the government in northern Iraq, Kurdistan, began to deport foreigners found to be HIV-positive because the government does not have the resources of facilities to offer treatment to its own citizens, let alone foreigners.

Ignorance about the pandemic remains widespread and it is taboo to discuss the ways in which the virus can be spread or to encourage the usage of condoms.