Survey Provides Insight Into AIDS Awareness Among Youth

JEDDAH, 6 January 2007 — A pilot study released in December reveals interesting views and habits by a sample of Saudi young men on a taboo topic that is somewhat counter to the perceived reality.

In conservative Saudi society, speaking about sex publicly is uncomfortable let alone speaking about sexually transmitted infections, especially the ones caused by the HIV virus that leads to AIDS.

An economics professor at King Abdul Aziz University conducted a survey of male university students aged between 19 and 23 on their knowledge and attitude toward AIDS and their evaluation of its social and economic effects. Although the sample is small, 147, their honest answers might indicate more sexual activity among youths than society recognizes and which require honest attention.

“The Jeddah male student community, with colleagues and acquaintances, is a sexually active group,” said Omar Al-Murshedi regarding the results of his study that he plans to expand including a larger number of subjects. “We should not neglect this group despite its high awareness of the issue (of AIDS) whether in terms of education, prevention, treatment and care, financially and psychologically.”

The majority of the students (61 percent) said they believe the social perception of the disease negatively affects feeling of sympathy for AIDS patients. The same number attributed this negative perception to the view that AIDS is God’s wrath for immoral behavior. Views that AIDS patients are perverts, gays or cheating spouses were the reason cited by 39 percent of those surveyed for the stigma associated with AIDS.

Almost all of the surveyed (90 percent) believe that the number of those afflicted with AIDS in Saudi Arabia is much higher than the officially announced numbers, perhaps hinting at their awareness of prevalence of sexually risky behaviors in their community.

Health Ministry officials say there are 10,120 reported HIV/AIDS cases in Saudi Arabia, of which 7,804 are non-Saudi.

Thirty-four percent of the survey respondents said they believed that Saudi officials deliberately reduce this number, while 32 percent said they think the number is simply inaccurate. A third of the respondents said they think the number is accurate for reported cases, but that they believed that considering unreported cases the number is much higher.

Based on studies in Africa, the World Health Organization estimates that for every reported case of AIDS, nine cases go unreported in countries where the statistical information is incomplete or questionable, or when health care workers aren’t trained or encouraged to keep records of confirmed or suspected HIV cases in their clinics. If this theory were applied to Saudi Arabia, the number of HIV cases could be over 100,000.

Exacerbating the problem in the Kingdom is the high number of undocumented migrants and visa overstayers from countries with high incidences of AIDS. Simply put the health of many of the Kingdom’s illegal migrants is unchecked. (Legal residents must be cleared of HIV to obtain a work/residency permit.)

Asked which group is more at risk of acquiring or might already be carrying the HIV virus, 39 percent said single men with regular sexual relations, 31 percent said married men having affairs, 18 percent said drug addicts and only 12 percent said homosexuals. It is worth noting that 22 percent of those surveyed are married.

A bolder question asked how many do they estimate of their friends and acquaintances have practiced or are practicing pre-marital sex. Forty-nine percent of the respondents estimated that at least half of their respective social circles were engaged in sex before marriage. Thirty-four percent estimated that a fourth of their friends and acquaintances were engaged in pre-marital sex.

These answers actually correlate with official findings that 80 percent of the reported HIV virus cases were transmitted through sexual intercourse. The same estimates state that for each HIV positive woman in the Kingdom there are three men with the virus. Worldwide the ratio of men to women is 1:1. In Saudi Arabia, men are three times more likely to have the HIV virus than women, mostly due to the fact that foreigners are more likely to have HIV and to be men. Eighty percent of reported AIDS cases in the Kingdom are people between the ages of 15 and 49.

Almost half of those surveyed (48 percent) said that it is easier to acquire the services of a prostitute abroad while 35 percent admitted that it is possible to pay for sex inside the Kingdom as well. Sixty-one percent of the respondents say they spend their vacations abroad.

On the other hand, 58 percent of those surveyed said they believed the growth in Saudi AIDS cases was due to sexual contact with illegal expatriates in the Kingdom.

In answers to questions on awareness, education and prevention campaigns, the young men surveyed showed a high level of honesty and understanding of the seriousness of the problem. Eighy-eight percent of them find that intensifying religious awareness could limit the spread of the virus.

A majority of the respondents (72 percent) approve of introducing the topic of sexually transmitted infections and diseases in high school and at the university level. Three fourths of those surveyed said they would support awareness campaigns on safe sex. Eighty-two percent said they would support measures to encourage engaged couples to have pre-nuptial HIV tests.

The young men also showed a high sense of awareness of the possible effect on society if measures are not taken to curtail the spread of the virus. They predicted an increase in the number of cases thus an increase in the number of spinsterhood, homosexuality, marriage to non-Saudis, widows and orphans.

All these results they said would have an impact on the social structure and on government plans and government spending. They made some recommendations for officials and society.

They asked religious leaders to encourage moral behavior, parents to ease early marriage and society to treat AIDS’ patients with care. They called for awareness campaigns in schools, free voluntary AIDS tests, repatriation-fee on sponsors if the employee is diagnosed with HIV and implementing a fingerprint system for preventing those already listed as diagnosed from entry. They also asked for making the treatment available for free to those financially incapable.