Dr. Kahlid Al-Talhi, director of the National Program to Combat AIDS, said that although there are relatively few diagnosed AIDS cases in the Kingdom, awareness programs should be implemented to eradicate misconceptions and to teach the public how to avoid HIV infection.

In 2009, the Health Ministry identified 1,287 new cases of HIV/AIDS, 481 of whom were Saudi nationals.

Al-Talhi said this was a five percent drop from the number of cases identified in 2008. Between 1984 and 2009, 15,213 HIV/AIDS cases have been diagnosed in the Kingdom, of which 4,019 were Saudis.

Health authorities maintain that the number of undiagnosed cases can be much higher than the number diagnosed. Saudi Arabia is considered to have one of the lowest rates of HIV infection.

People with HIV live longer with the virus before succumbing to AIDS than ever before, and the quality of life of infected people has improved considerably since the early 1980s when the human immunodeficiency virus was identified following an outbreak in the US.

The way to beat this disease, Al-Talhi recommends, is to build awareness in society and promote testing for the infection.

In the cases where the anonymous test comes back positive, patients can be counseled and treated.

“The test has an advantage of being confidential and the question include the age, nationality and gender, but no name or any other info to reveal the identity of the patient is required,” said Al-Talhi.

In case of positive findings a voluntary counseling is available where the patient is told about the importance of following up and receiving treatment, he added.