December 1, 2003	Monday	Shawwal 6, 1424

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KABUL, Nov 30: Lack of public awareness and increasing intravenous drug use can increase the risk of an AIDS epidemic in Afghanistan, the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) warned Sunday.

“Increasing drug use is a serious factor that could push Afghanistan towards the risk of an HIV/AIDS epidemic if we don’t start raising public awareness of the issue, and focus on prevention,” Unicef’s Afghanistan section head of health Peter Salama said in a statement ahead of World AIDS day on Monday.

“One of the major difficulties in Afghanistan is that there is no functional surveillance and data gathering system on HIV/AIDS,” the doctor said.

Unicef spokesman Edward Carwardine said the country had so far escaped relatively unscathed with fewer than 20 reported cases of the disease.

“Less than 20 cases of HIV/AIDS have officially been reported in Afghanistan but with evidence of increasing intravenous drug use in the country, the threat from HIV and AIDS is a growing concern amongst health sector officials,” he told reporters.—AFP