World Aids Day: Why the Middle East lags behind in fighting HIV

The number of new HIV cases worldwide has decreased significantly over the last decade - but in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena), however, it is a different story.

The world has come a long way since the peak of the HIV/Aids epidemic - which has so far claimed more than 40 million lives - in 1996.

Between 2010 and 2021, the global number of new HIV infections has decreased by 32%.

Although the Mena region has the lowest HIV burden in the world, the number of new infections increased by 33% in that same period.

That made it one of only three regions in the world - along with Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Latin America - where HIV is still on the rise.

While the increase could be seen as the result of wider HIV testing in the Mena region, experts suggest that the issue is more complicated.

"The positive cases we are discovering via increased testing are not old cases. They are newly infected people, which shows that we are failing in stopping the spread of HIV in the region," says Dr Nesrine Rizk, an HIV specialist at the American University of Beirut.

"There is definitely a growing awareness of HIV in the Mena region, but it is still not enough."

According to Dr Rizk, in the region there is a lack of "accurate scientific information" when it comes to HIV.

BBC Arabic teams asked people on the streets of Beirut and Cairo what they knew about HIV and what they believed to be behind the rise in cases.

More than half of those surveyed said they "do not know much about HIV and Aids". Some added that they did not want to know more about them, as they and their loved ones were "far away from the infection".

In the region - and across the rest of the world - people who use drugs, men who have sex with men, transgender people and sex workers are considered the most at-risk populations.

"The virus doesn't understand barriers and social groups, it spreads and transmits as we all live and interact in the same space," Dr Rizk says.

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