Iran wakes up to HIV/AIDS epidemic among expectant mothers
The Iranian government is trying to combat the spread of an HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country, especially among pregnant women, but much work remains to be done.
In the icy, antiseptic halls of Tehran’s Day Hospital, a man grabbed a fistful of hairs on the back of his head. It was hard to ignore him, as he paced back and forth muttering, “No, no, no,” under his breath. I had just witnessed a doctor inform the man that his pregnant wife had contracted HIV; this exchange occurred while I awaited a blood test to monitor my bout with mononucleosis during February 2005.
I’m now reminded of that scene as Dr. Parvin Afsar Kazerouni, the head of the Ministry of Health’s AIDS Department, has announced that all expectant Iranian mothers are to take HIV tests as of next year.
The latest government figures estimate that 66,000 Iranians have HIV, and that 30,000 of them don’t even know they have the virus. Some statistics even estimate that 120,000 Iranians are living with HIV. According to the United Nations, Iran has among the highest rates of heroin and opium addiction in the world; thus, much of its HIV/AIDS epidemic is found among intravenous drug users and its prison population. The virus is also prevalent among prostitutes and sexually active young people — again, many don’t even know they contracted the virus. What has been on the rise is the number of expectant mothers infected by the virus.
UNAIDS reports that as of September 2016, 80 HIV-positive pregnant Iranian women were identified. Most of the women contracted the virus from their husbands, and many didn’t even know they had it until they gave birth to an HIV-positive baby. The thought of consulting about HIV before marriage and pregnancy hadn’t crossed the couples’ minds. In other cases, some HIV-positive women decided to have children, knowing that they could dramatically reduce the risk of mother-to-child transmission through proper planning.
