My profile Contribute Logout. HIV-positive women and children gathered for a picnic organised by an organisation in Karaj, Iran. A new wave of HIV infections is well underway in Iran. This is cause for serious concern in a country where knowledge on preventing its spread is in short supply, while the age at which people start having sex has fallen, according to health workers.
For women infected with the virus, life can be especially difficult. The Iranian authorities have been talking about a "third wave" of HIV infections since last year. The Observers See profile. Mehdi works at the Alborz Council for Support and Assistance, a charitable organisation that helps women and children infected with HIV in the city of Karaj. He holds educational workshops on the subject.
Ninety percent of the women we help in the impoverished areas of Karaj received the virus through their husbands, many of whom contracted the virus in prison, where they are sharing needles for taking drugs or for tattoos. The rest of these women are heroin addicts and were infected by sharing needles. Most of these women are abandoned by their relatives.
This is where we intervene. We introduce these women to doctors and dentists who are prepared to cooperate with us. We try to do everything we can to prevent infected women from committing suicide. We have a woman who set herself on fire from the neck down. We have also seen cases of women who want to get revenge by intentionally giving the virus to others. They think they can get revenge on the society that has turned them into outcasts.
We try to prevent that, too, by talking to them about their anger. We teach them how to deal with this disease, and how to tell people about their condition. We try to find them homes, we get psychiatrists to speak to them, and we take them out on picnics and trips every two weeks or so. With this third wave of HIV, people need to be taught from a young age how to prevent spreading the virus.
