JEDDAH, 23 August 2003 — Dr. Abdullah Al-Taify, acting director of health affairs in Madinah, yesterday denied reports that a government hospital in the region had kept an African AIDS patient out in the street for 10 hours.
“The patient was in a state of agitation and intended to run away from the hospital,” the official said, adding that the patient had threatened nurses and tried to commit suicide.
Okaz newspaper identified the patient as Baba Muhammad Hasan. “The patient got out of the hospital as a result of the negligence of the guard,” Al-Taify said, adding that the hospital had dealt with the man in a humane manner.
Hasan came to the hospital from the Quba police station where he was held on theft charges. When police discovered that he was affected by the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, they transferred him to Meeqat Hospital.
The 19-year-old African was an overstayer, the paper said. Arrangements have been made to transfer him to King Fahd Hospital in Madinah.
The new report comes a week after an Indonesian AIDS patient was denied necessary treatment by a private hospital in Jeddah and thrown out into the street.
The health department in Jeddah set up a committee to investigate the circumstances that prompted the New Jeddah Clinic Hospital to discharge Abdul Rahim Mahmood, 57, and dump him on the street.
Dr. Talal Akram, acting director of health affairs in Jeddah, called the incident “deplorable” and said: “If we look at it from the human side, what happened is disgusting and not representative of our society or our religion.” The presence of an AIDS patient outside the Madinah hospital had created fears among the city’s residents. Al-Madinah newspaper said the hospital had thrown the patient into the street. “The hospital’s management will be given a strong warning notice for creating a situation of fear inside and outside the building,” the paper said quoting a security source.
But Al-Taify defended the hospital saying the security guards had found it difficult to control the patient.
Hasan has asked the authorities to deport him to his country as quickly as possible.
Nurses at the hospital told Al-Madinah that the patient posed a threat to not only the staff but also the visitors. A nurse also said there was another AIDS patient at the hospital. “These patients pose a big threat to our life and family and we don’t know how to deal with them,” the nurse said and urged authorities to keep such patients in a special health facility.
