Shafaq News- Baghdad

Iraq’s Environment Ministry on Sunday clarified remarks by Minister Sarwa Abdulwahid concerning medical waste discharged into the Tigris River, stressing that HIV cannot be transmitted through fish, drinking water or food.

The ministry said Abdulwahid’s warning concerned the environmental and public-health risks of hospitals releasing untreated medical waste and contaminated wastewater into the river, and the need for proper treatment under environmental standards.

It said some media coverage had inaccurately linked the minister’s remarks to the possibility of contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, by eating fish.

According to the ministry, established medical evidence shows that HIV is not transmitted through fish, water or food. The World Health Organization (WHO) says HIV is transmitted through certain bodily fluids, including blood, semen, vaginal fluids and breast milk, and not through food or water.

The ministry stressed that its concerns over river pollution remain, citing risks to human health and ecosystems from untreated waste, and reiterated that Iraq remains under an environmental emergency. It said authorities would continue investigating and disclosing violations that threaten public health, while urging media outlets to report scientific and environmental issues accurately and avoid headlines that could cause unwarranted public alarm.

Read more: Death in the current: Pollution decimates Iraq’s river ecosystems