Manama, March 5 (BNA) — Officials from the UNAIDS agency are due to visit the Kingdom of Bahrain in the first week of March 2013 to update the government of Bahrain on the Arab AIDS initiative and the role of the member states in implementing the Arab AIDS strategy.

The delegation comprising of Dr Renu Chahil-Graf, Director, UNAIDS Regional Support Team for the Middle East and North Africa and her colleague Mr Don Mclean will visit Bahrain on 05 06 March 2013 to advise the government on the Arab AIDS initiative as well as the Arab AIDS strategy which will be endorsed by the Arab League in March during the World Health Assembly. To this end, the UNAIDS delegation together with the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations in Bahrain, Mr Peter Grohmann, will meet with His Excellency the Minister of Health Sadiq AbdulKarim Al Shehabi on 6 March.

UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, is an innovative partnership that leads and inspires the world in achieving universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

The Arab AIDS initiative was launched in March 2012 at the 37th Session of the Council of the Arab Ministers of Health, representing the member countries of the League of Arab States and aims at accelerating national and regional AIDS responses to achieve the targets set in the 2011 Political Declaration on AIDS.

According to the 2012 Fact Sheet of the UNAIDS Regional Support Office for Middle East North Africa, there is an increasing HIV prevalence, new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths in the region. Between 2001 and 2011, the estimated number of people living with HIV in the Middle East and North Africa increased from 210 000 to 300 000 Since 2001, the number of people newly infected with HIV in the Middle East and North Africa has increased by more than 35%—from 27 000 to 37 000. Between 2005 and 2011, there was a significant increase (17%) in AIDS-related deaths in this region—from 20 000 to 23 000 .

EM