AIDS awareness campaign kicks off in Jeddah

The Saudi Charitable Association for AIDS Patients (SACA) has conducted an awareness campaign in Jeddah amidst efforts to create awareness about the disease.
The first phase of the three-month campaign ended on Saturday, where it conducted various programs including social, psychological, religious and health forums that consisted workshops and lectures, in addition to clinical testing and patient-counseling.
The association’s Jeddah branch official, Abu Musa, revealed that the aim of such awareness programs is to eradicate social stigmas associated with the disease and to lay myths surrounding the HIV virus that leads to AIDS to rest, in addition to striving for an AIDS-free generation.
Dr. Sana Filmban, director of the National Program for Combating AIDS at the Ministry of Health and chairperson of the society, said that the Saudi Health Ministry is effectively engaged in awareness campaigns to successfully combat the disease by 2017.
She also said that SACA faces major challenges in fighting discrimination toward AIDS patients.
Filmban added that the society has carried out campaigns in 80 selected public places, including universities, schools, hospitals, shopping malls and mosques with the aim of targeting youth.
The Ministry of Health launched its campaign as part of a five-year national strategy for combating AIDS. According to the statement, there was a 4.5-percent increase in the number of AIDS cases in Saudi Arabia in 2011 compared with 2010.