WEST BANK: For World AIDS Day, theatre production aims to boost awareness of condition amongst Palestinian youths

Record ID: 402236

  • Title: WEST BANK: For World AIDS Day, theatre production aims to boost awareness of condition amongst Palestinian youths
  • Date: 1st December 2010
  • Summary: JENIN, WEST BANK (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SCENE IN PLAY TITLED "WHY?" WHICH EXPLORES HIV/AIDS-RELATED ISSUES
  • Embargoed: 16th December 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Health
  • Reuters ID: LVA3D0I7UCDKX6DDN2XWJDE0XFN1
  • Story Text: To mark World AIDS Day, a Palestinian group began touring with a play to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS amongst youths in the Palestinian territories.
    The play part of a drive in the Palestinian territories to educate Palestinian youths on the causes of, and ways to protect against, contracting the HIV virus.
    "The play 'Why?' which directly discusses the disease AIDS, has a clear message to the local community, especially the youths who are the targeted audience of this play," said the play's director and head of the al-Harra (The Hot) theatre group Nicola Zreneh.
    "The AIDS patient is the same as a patient of any other disease. The disease is not a source of disgrace for the society nor for the individuals themselves, because AIDS can be contracted in a number of ways," Zreneh said after a performance for schoolgirls in the West Bank city of Jenin.
    Palestinian authorities recently announced that 67 cases of HIV/AIDS have been recorded in the Palestinian territories since 1987.
    The Palestinian Ministry of Health said it was cooperating with United Nations organizations to educate Palestinians about HIV/AIDS.
    The ministry said this was being done through plays and other cultural activities, including HIV/AIDS education in school curricula, training at schools and universities, and working with women's and other grassroots groups.
    Director of the Department of Preventative Medicine at the Ministry of Health Doctor Iyad Arafeh gave a breakdown of the recorded cases.
    "Regarding the causes of contracting (HIV/AIDS) here, 55 percent (of cases) are due to unprotected (heterosexual) sex. There are also cases caused by homosexual sex, and both types of sexual activity contribute to about 62 percent of cases here. Regarding blood transfusions, some who have haemophilia or other diseases that require the transfusion of large amounts of blood, this contributes about 16 percent of cases," Arafeh said.
    Authorities expect the actual number of HIV/AIDS cases in the Palestinian territories to be higher. Arafeh said intravenous drug use was another cause of contracting the AIDS-causing virus. He said Palestinian labourers working in Israel came into more contact with drugs and prostitution and were at particular risk.
    The epidemic remains a touchy subject in the Middle East and North Africa region's conservative societies, due to its correlation with unprotected premarital and extramarital sex, men having sex with men without condoms, or prostitution and intravenous drug use.
    UNAIDS has said only 10 to 14 percent of the 400,000 people infected with HIV in the Middle East and North Africa get treatment due to the stigma and discrimination that has made people wary of being tested.
    The number of reported HIV cases in the region as a whole grew by 100,000 in the past two years according to U.N. statistics. However, concerns remain that more cases go undetected due to lack of systematic surveying.
    The Middle East and North Africa region lacks any targeted campaign for groups living in the margins of society most at risk for HIV, such as sex workers or drug users, UNAIDS has said.
    World AIDS Day is observed internationally on December 1.
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