CAIRO, 19 October (PLUSNEWS) - Egypt is still in the early stages of fighting HIV/AIDS, hindered by public fear and ignorance of the disease and the social rejection of people infected with it. As a result, women hardly register Egypt's official AIDS statistics. Full report

ARBIL, 12 December (PLUSNEWS - DFID) - Health officials in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region have said they lack antiretroviral drugs and HIV testing equipment, and that they have been instructed by health authorities in Baghdad to deport foreigners who have been found HIV-positive. Full report

GAZA CITY, 7 December (PLUSNEWS - DFID) - The manner in which 14-year-old Mahmoud (not his real name) was infected with HIV was unusual - but the subsequent reaction of Palestinian society was all too predictable. Full report

AMMAN, 30 November (PLUSNEWS - DFID) - Despite the low prevalence of AIDS in Jordan, the existence of vulnerable groups that could become infected with the virus and the difficulty in tracking them are the biggest challenges for the country’s new strategy on AIDS, a senior health official said. Full report

BEIRUT, 11 August (PLUSNEWS - DFID) - The lives of hundreds of Lebanese living with HIV and AIDS are under threat owing to the shortage of essential drugs in the country, health care workers said. Full report

BAGHDAD, 9 August (PLUSNEWS - DFID) - First came the phone call - a man who accused Farid Abbas of carrying “an indecent disease? and telling him that he’d be killed “for the safety of the country?. Two days later, 42-year-old Abbas, who had been HIV-positive for nine years, was gunned down on the street. Full report