Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2007. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - December 1, 2007
Deputy Public Health Minister Faizullah Kakar said 75 percent of those infected are men, and seven people are known to have died from AIDS, the disease caused by the HIV virus.
"I'm sure that there are more people with the HIV virus than we know," Kakar said. "We are going to launch a survey to find out exactly how many people are affected."
Sixty-six percent of the people known to be infected with HIV are intravenous drug users who contracted the virus through needle-sharing, and others were migrant laborers who left Afghanistan for work, he said.
Accurate statistics are very hard to come by in Afghanistan, which has been wracked by violence and war for nearly three decades. Today in Asia - Pacific Danger rules lawless Highway 1 in Afghanistan Rudd acts to ratify Kyoto accord in Australia Hong Kong election win cheers democrats
About 70 young people marched through a public park Saturday carrying banners about AIDS awareness as part of a campaign by the Afghan Red Crescent Society for World AIDS Day.
Well-known Afghan actors took part in the day's activities, performing a play in a park in central Kabul to inform people about the disease.
"Most of our people don't know about AIDS. These kinds of awareness programs are very useful," said Mohammad Usman, a photographer who was watching the play in Shar-e Naw park.
A study released last month by ActionAid Afghanistan found that while the country does not have a large number of HIV cases, there is a high risk that the disease could spread because of an increasing number of injecting drug users.
Of 99 injecting drug users interviewed, nearly half did not know HIV could be spread through sharing needles, the group said.
ActionAid also interviewed 56 female commercial sex workers and found that only 4 percent had heard of AIDS.
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