General facts and figures

A good starting point is the UNAIDS website. The latest facts and figures are in the UNAIDS Middle East and North Africa factsheet. The regional pages give a good overview of the situation.

Also useful are the site's country pages which contain key facts and figures as well as an outline of each national response to the pandemic.

The World Health Organisation Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean and its website on AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases carry useful health reports and links to other international agencies.

Regional reports

The University of California San Francisco School of Medicine has a website on HIV in the Middle East and North Africa which has a useful overview and links to research reports. It also has links to organisations focusing on this field.

The Global Network of Researchers on HIV/AIDS in the Middle East and North Africa is a listserv for researchers working in the field. Their website has useful links to organisations working in the field as well as recent reports.

Another research-based website is Eldis. This has links to published research reports from U.N. organisations, aid agencies, think tanks etc. (Use the site's search engine to track them down.)

AIDS and Islam

The Kuwait-based Islamic Organisation for Medical Sciences site outlines an Islamic response to the virus.

A 2006 article from the British Medical Journal by the WHO's Carla Makhlouf Obermeyer looks at the link between Islam and HIV prevalence, including how it affects women.

AIDS and the economy

The World Bank has produced some key regional reports.

One published in November 2005, 'Preventing HIV/AIDS in the Middle East and North Africa: A Window of Opportunity to Act', looks at how the epidemic is spreading, how different governments have responded, and what needs to be done to contain it.