RESEARCHER DESCRIBES HIV/AIDS SITUATION IN IRAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RPO DUBAI 000329 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 8/12/2019 TAGS: PGOV SOCI ECON KHIV IR SUBJECT: RESEARCHER DESCRIBES HIV/AIDS SITUATION IN IRAN DUBAI 00000329 001.2 OF 002 CLASSIFIED BY: Timothy Richardson, Acting Director, Iran Regional Presence Office, Department of State. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (C) Summary: An Iranian HIV/AIDS researcher in Dubai applying for a visa sat down with IRPO to discuss the HIV/AIDS situation in Iran. Less than 1 percent of the Iranian population is infected, though developing accurate statistics is difficult because the leading causes of HIV/AIDS in Iran, intravenous drug use and sexual conduct, are hidden from public view. The Iranian government is supportive of HIV/AIDS research and efforts to prevent its spread, but focuses much more on preventing transmission via intravenous drug use and limits the ability of healthcare workers to address infection via sexual conduct. In general, the researcher supported the government's efforts but recognized that if HIV/AIDS in Iran becomes more prevalent, the government will need to do more. End summary. ¶2. (C) The researcher is an associate professor at Tehran University Medical School and is the research manager at the Iranian Research Center for HIV/AIDS, the IRIG's only such facility dedicated solely to HIV/AIDS research. HIV/AIDS in Iran -------------- ¶3. (C) According to the researcher, less than 1 percent of Iran's population is HIV/AIDS positive. (Comment: A 2008 UN report placed the number of cases in Iran in 2007 at between 67,000 and 110,000.) The researcher breaks the population into a high-risk segment and a low-risk segment. Intravenous drug users and those with multiple sex partners constitute the high-risk cohort. The low-risk group includes those that have low rates of intravenous drug use, such as mothers but also, surprisingly, truckers and sailors. Generating an accurate picture of HIV/AIDS among the high-risk group is difficult because their risk factors (drug use and sex) is hidden from public view and as a result, the researcher uses infection rates among the low-risk group to gauge when HIV/AIDs in on the rise. Rates of HIV/AIDS are higher in urban areas, but the disease is also present in rural areas. He blames the prevalence of HIV/AIDS on the country's social and economic mismanagement, suggesting that the political problems and chronic issues like unemployment make Iranian youth inclined to turn to drugs. 
 ¶4. (C) Of those that have contracted HIV/AIDs, roughly 60 percent are intravenous drug users, a figure he said that is comparable to the rest of the world. Government statistics attribute about 20 percent of HIV/AIDS to sexual contact and list another 20 percent as unknown, although he presumes that all of these latter cases also contracted HIV/AIDs via sexual contact. By his estimate, fewer than 5 percent of cases resulted from blood transfusions or via mother-infant transmission. (Note: These numbers add up to over 100 percent; he was attempting to give his own rough estimates rather than provide precise numbers.) IRIG Attitudes toward HIV/AIDS Prevention -------------- ¶5. (C) The researcher described the government as very supportive of research into HIV/AIDS and efforts to prevent its spread. However, as he elaborated, it became evident that the IRIG supports efforts to prevent infection via drug use but, due to religious sensitivities, is less willing to address the role of sexual contact. He claimed that Iran's HIV/AIDS drug addict research programs are some of the largest and most prominent in the world. He commended government-sponsored programs in prisons, clinics, and health centers to move intravenous drug users to inhaled drugs. Many clinics, including his own, also give clean syringes to drug addicts and such programs are not at all controversial. ¶6. (C) Efforts to educate the public about HIV/AIDS transmission via sexual contact are constrained. The government does not allow his research center to discuss the relationship between sexual contact and HIV/AIDS with high school students. And although a few health clinics are allowed to distribute condoms, DUBAI 00000329 002.2 OF 002 they are only allowed to provide them to HIV/AIDS infected persons. Politics also appears to play a role; the researcher said there was greater "space" to educate Iranians under former President Khatami than exists now with President Ahmadinejad. At the same time, the researcher expected that if the HIV/AIDS worsens in Iran, the government will adjust and allow more openness out of necessity. Open to International HIV/AIDS Cooperation -------------- ¶7. (C) The researcher said his center works closely with international programs, including the World Health Organization's (WHO) office in Iran and the UN Aids Iran office. The WHO has plans to form an official partnership with his center in the future and to eventually make the center a "knowledge hub" and train other (presumably international) HIV/AIDS researchers there. Currently, his research center is training and sharing knowledge with clinics and treatment centers in Afghanistan. And exchanges and affiliations with U.S. institutions also exist. The researcher will be attending a research seminar this fall at UC San Francisco. Comment -------------- ¶8. (C) Iran's inability to fully address the spread of HIV/AIDS reflects the country's broader development challenges. Religious conservatism, as well other entrenched interests, limit the IRIG's range of available policy options -- in this case largely preventing healthcare workers from tackling one of the key drivers of new HIV/AIDS infections, sexual conduct. That said, our interlocutor was optimistic that if HIV/AIDS in Iran becomes worse, government policy would become more pragmatic. RICHARDSON