Yemen NGO Links Poverty to Increasing HIV/AIDS

High poverty rates and low education levels are contributing to increased vulnerability to HIV/AIDS in Yemen, especially among commercial sex workers. This is according to the Integrated Care Association for People Living with HIV.

The organisation’s secretary-general, Abdul-Hafed al-Ward, points out that most cases of HIV/AIDS involve people with low incomes.

Al-Ward maintains that, “Poverty and HIV/AIDS go together and wherever the former exists so does the latter."

In the same vein, Khaled Abdul-Majid, a programme officer at the United Nations Development Program's Sanaa office, says the country’s government institutions do not have the capacity to tackle HIV/AIDS. He argues that a lack of knowledge about the virus is leading to fear about the epidemic.

To read the article titled, “Poverty, ignorance fuel Yemen HIV/AIDS problem,” click here.