AIDS and drug addiction a delicate subject.

Few data are available on addictive practices in the North African countries. Most of the material collected on this topic so far has not been published apart from one study. Drug abuse seems to be increasing steadily however and the AIDS epidemic is sometimes more closely correlated with this habit than it may seem to be. Patterns of morbidity have changed conspicuously in the Maghreb societies during the last two decades. In addition to the persistent transmissible diseases (syphilis ravaged these countries at the beginning of the 20th. Century) diseases originally associated with the so-called "industrialised countries" have become increasingly frequent due to poor hygiene and the wretched housing conditions generated by large-scale urban development (the French word for slums "bidonville" was invented in Casablanca). (excerpt)