Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
BBC News - December 1, 2005
Andrew North, BBC News, Kabul
There are no accurate figures on the incidence of HIV or Aids here.
But the UN Population Fund said, in a statement issued in Kabul, that things could escalate out of control if measures are not taken now.
There is great concern over the virus being spread by growing numbers of drug users injecting and sharing needles.
No-one sure
The only definite figures available on HIV-Aids in Afghanistan would suggest that there is not too much to worry about.
There are just 35 HIV-positive cases identified by Kabul's blood bank.
But the reality in this still war-shattered country is that no one can be sure of the situation nation-wide.
The Health Ministry can only guess. It has little capacity to collect accurate statistics.
Even in the cities, many Afghans only have access to rudimentary medical care, so people could easily die of Aids without ever knowing they had the disease.
Public awareness of HIV-Aids and how it can be contracted is limited, especially in the rural areas.
Conditions are ripe for an increase, warns the UN, particularly because of a rise in the numbers of people injecting drugs , an activity almost always associated with a high incidence of HIV.
Usually, it is the impact of Afghanistan's illegal drugs trade abroad that gets the attention.
Its opium fields are the source for most of the world's heroin.
But the UN has recently estimated the country has almost one million drug users of its own.
About 7,000 are thought to be injecting drugs like heroin and anecdotal evidence suggests that the sharing of needles is common.
That is why the UN is backing programmes here to boost the level of awareness of HIV-Aids with posters and television and radio campaigns.
Now is the time to act, it says.
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