MIDDLE Eastern health workers are putting aside religious and political divisions and joining forces to fight the spread of the AIDS virus.
In one corner of the huge 11th International Conference on AIDS in Vancouver, British Columbia, four Palestinians, three Israelis and one Jordanian grouped in the Jerusalem AIDS Project are staffing a booth among other non-governmental organisations.
"We are showing that you can stand above political, religious and regional barriers and come together on an issue that you feel is important," said Ms Diane Abraham, head of Bethlehem University's school of nursing, representing the Palestinian community in the West Bank.
While Middle Eastern and North African countries have one of the world's lowest rates of infections with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, an upsurge in heroin use, international tourism and the region's deeply conservative cultures make it vulnerable, members of the delegation said in interviews on Tuesday.
About 200,000 people are living with HIV or AIDS in the Middle East and North Africa out of a global total of 21.8 million, according to UN estimates.
Among the problems facing the region is "the difficulty of conducting effective sexual health programmes," according to a study by international epidemiologists prepared for the conference.
"We're talking about a region in the world that has cultures that are very, very conservative," said Mr Inon Schenker, executive director of the Jerusalem AIDS Project.
The group plans to produce a newsletter in Hebrew, Arabic and English providing AIDS prevention information in a way that diplomatically deals with the region's cultural sensibilities.