RIYADH, 13 April 2006 — When reporting about AIDS in Saudi Arabia, statistics can be tricky. The infection carries a heavy stigma in most of the world, but in Saudi Arabia there had been for years a lack of recognition for the need to provide information on this disease that is spread in most (but not all) cases through haram (forbidden) behavior.
The UN World Health Organization says the first case of HIV infection in the Kingdom was reported in 1984. Between 1984 and 2000, information on the spread of the disease is virtually non-existent.
In 2000, the number of reported cases was 436; another estimated 200 cases were added by 2002. According to a BBC report citing UN statistics, the number of cases in 2003 was 6,787, including 1,509 Saudi nationals.
The leap in the increase of cases is widely considered not to be a reflection of the spread of the virus but rather the growth in the Saudi government’s recognition that statistics are important for addressing a problem that puts at risk the very foundation of the family structure.
The increased efforts to provide more accurate statistical information may have a long way to go, but the sharp increase in reported cases is a sign that the country’s health authorities seem to be heading in the direction of accuracy.
A source from the Health Ministry told the local media earlier this year that the number of AIDS cases increased in the Kingdom by 15 percent from 2004. If this information is accurate and based on the 2003 figures, then the number of reported cases is likely to break the 8,000 barrier in 2006, up from 436 in 2000.
But the cold statistics do little justice in reflecting the human condition of victims of the disease, whether it is the carriers of the fatal virus themselves or their families and friends.
Like in other parts of the world, persons who voluntarily submit to treatment are treated with respect to their privacy. However, persons caught in police dragnets must in some cases succumb to involuntary AIDS testing. The authorities do have the power to force people with HIV to enter programs aimed at teaching them how to prevent spreading the virus to other people.
The Arabic daily Al-Watan published on Sunday an interview with an anonymous man that admitted that he acquired the HIV virus from a prostitute in a neighboring country.
He said that he tested positive for HIV when trying to give blood for a family member’s operation a year later. By then his wife had the virus, too.
Another anonymous Saudi man interviewed by Al-Watan said he transmitted the virus to his two wives.
