***DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS SPECIAL REPORT***

Growing HIV Crisis in the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

MOSUL: Doctors in Northern Iraq and Eastern Syria have sounded the alarm on a new health crisis in the area.
Hospitals have become flooded with HIV positive patients, and the few medical professionals there say they are not equipped to handle it.
These new HIV patients are all young men from rural areas in Northern Iraq and Eastern Syria.  Though they will not admit it, many of these men are confirmed ISIS fighters.
The head doctor of Mosul Central hospital explains the trend: “Some of these ISIS fighters have privately admitted to the rampant amounts of homosexual relations within the fighters on the front lines of the battles, where there are no women.  At some point, one of them would have contracted HIV and spread it like wildfire amongst the army.  There are also some new viruses that our staff cannot identify.”  The doctor, who wished to remain anonymous, left it at that, but the staff at MSF understood what the doctor was implying: the ISIS fighters may have created a new virus from their (documented) sexual activities with domesticated farm animals, usually goats and donkeys.
The doctor went on to explain that this new problem is overstraining his staff which are already dealing with too many problems resulting from the bloody conflicts nearby: mangled bodies, disease from dirty water, malnutrition, etc.
Doctors Without Borders is currently working on procuring shipments of HIV treatment drug CCR5 which are severely lacking in the area.  This will prove a challenge as the area remains unstable.
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