Afghanistan Sees Sharp Rise in HIV Cases as Infections Double in Recent Years

As one of the few places in Afghanistan able to treat HIV for patients like Saeed Rahman, this hospital in Kabul is a refuge that offers a chance of better health. He had suffered debilitating symptoms for several years before eventually being diagnosed. At night, I couldn't sleep. I would wake up gasping for air. My weight dropped from 85 to 44 kilograms eventually I became so weak that I could hardly walk the Afghan Japan hospital says it has seen a doubling of new cases in the past couple of years the surge has been blamed in part on the forced return of millions of migrants from neighboring Pakistan and Iran putting a strain on already overstretched medical services and it coincides with a cut in overseas aid since the return of the Taliban to power five years ago in the past patients received support not only for the regular HIV medication but also with other essential medicines but that assistance has now decreased significantly the government says it's overcoming problems to expand HIV testing across Afghanistan we have a message to HIV patients and also the people who are facing with HIV virus in Afghanistan, that the Ministry of Public Health are standing with them and also we are trying our best to provide health facilities and also health services to them. Afghanistan's geopolitical isolation adds to the burden of its HIV sufferers who, here as elsewhere, face discrimination. Apart from our center, almost no other medical facility readily accepts HIV patients, whether though they have surgical, dental or other medical problems, they often struggle to find a facility willing to treat them. It is a struggle Sayed has experienced first hand. My family has completely shunned me. They tell me not to come to their houses, saying, you have an illness and you will infect us. They continue to avoid us. And facing international isolation of its own, it is a rejection many in Afghanistan can empathize with. Rob McBride, Al Jazeera.