RIYADH, 11 August — The Kingdom has recorded 1,285 AIDS cases since it began monitoring the dreaded disease in 1984, Dr. Yaaqub ibn Yousuf Al-Mazroue, assistant deputy health minister for preventive medicine, disclosed here yesterday.
The low figure indicates that the spread of AIDS in the Kingdom remains much lower and more effectively controlled than in countries of the Eastern Mediterranean region in particular and of the world in general, he said in a statement. "But this does not mitigate the danger of the disease. It is one of the most dangerous infectious diseases in the world," he said.
"The MoH started a public program to register all AIDS patients in 1984 with the aim of checking the spread of the disease. The total number includes 452 patients who have full blown AIDS and 833 who are in different stages of the diseases", Mazroue said.
He said that "the MoH is currently preparing an awareness program in cooperation with other government agencies and private sector organizations to educate the people as to how the disease is transmitted and how it can be prevented".
The ministry takes proper care of AIDS patients and has allocated adequate amounts in the budget to supply medicine and treat the patients, he said.
"We have also established three new advanced clinics in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam to check AIDS cases," he pointed out.Spelling out how the HIV virus transmits the disease from AIDS patients to healthy individuals, he said in more than 80 percent cases it is transmitted through sexual contact. Blood transfusion and use of syringes and surgical equipment contaminated by the blood or saliva of AIDS victims are other reasons.
Mazroue said the medical science has not yet found a cure for the disease. "So protection is the best method available now," he said and called upon the public to keep away from illicit sexual relations.
Saudi Arabia has been working with the World Health Organization (WHO) to check the AIDS epidemic, focusing equally on the importance of people’s involvement in the fight against AIDS. The Kingdom has also been observing world AIDS day every year on Dec. 1, when a number of educational programs are organized. The move is intended to generate substantial public awareness about the epidemic.
The MoH’s Health Education Department has been preparing and distributing educational materials and brochures among health care institutions and individuals to raise awareness about this disease for the last several years. This is in addition to the educational materials distributed by the local chapter of the WHO from time to time. Referring to the awareness campaign to be launched, Mazroue said such programs eventually help to plan preventive interventions and to measure the effectiveness of these interventions.
On the global and regional levels, the AIDS situation is very grim. There are now more than 50 million people in the world who tested HIV positive. Over 3.3 million people have died of the disease last year with AIDS becoming the biggest killer of young people. In the Eastern Mediterranean region, the intensity of AIDS epidemic, however, is lower. The number of AIDS cases exceeds 9,000 in the region including the Gulf states where the number of HIV infections has crossed the 26,000 mark.
The disease, however, is spreading in the Gulf region also at a steady rate. HIV transmission through injection of drugs has been reported in all countries of the region.
There is, however, some good examples of work by young people in the Arab world to stop the spread of AIDS. The Arab Scouts Organization is making excellent efforts involving nearly one and a half million children and young adults to enhance awareness about the disease on the regional level. Some countries have also set up telephone hotlines to enable young people to obtain full information about AIDS in complete confidentiality. The aim is also to motivate people to adopt preventive measures.
