HIV set to rise in Lebanon if heroin use continues to grow

BEIRUT: HIV diagnoses are predicted to rise if drug use in Lebanon continues to grow in popularity, an addiction center spokeswomen said Thursday. The dangerous practice of sharing heroin needles is said to be responsible for the increase in the number of HIV cases in Lebanon, said Dala Fakhredine, a psychotherapist at the Lebanese addiction center Skoun.

Although the infection rate of HIV is currently relatively low in the country compared to the average worldwide figures, Skoun predicts a spike in the number of cases due to an increase in heroin use and the practices associated with it.

Skoun is lobbying the Lebanese government to shift the current emphasis in legislation from prosecution to treatment, like the long-term strategies for treating patients that some European systems have.

But Fakhouri expressed concern that “it will take a long time for [the government] to start thinking like that.”

[AIDSPortal summary]

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