AIDS Cases on the Rise in Saudi Arabia

Monday, 08 January 2007
By Shahid Ali Khan
The Saudi Gazette

RIYADH

THE number of HIV positive cases in Saudi Arabia is on the rise despite the Kingdom’s efforts to contain the spread of the deadly disease. The number of HIV positive case reported in 2005 was 1,201, with 311 of them being Saudis and 890 non-Saudis. This brings the total number of HIV/AIDS patients in the Kingdom to 10,181. Saudis make up 2,316 of these, while 7,805 are foreigners, said Dr. Salah Ahmed, the office manager in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the Ministry of Health (MoH).
“However, the latest figures on HIV positive cases in 2006 aren’t available yet,” Dr. Ahmed said.
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is a retrovirus that leads to AIDS, a condition in humans in which the immune system begins to fail, leading to the possibility of life-threatening infections.
Dr. Ahmed said the MoH is staging an all out war against the spread of AIDS and will come up with a number of programs, which include opening AIDS clinics in a number of cities in the Kingdom.
Currently, Saudi Arabia has four equipped centers in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam and Jizan for the education, prevention and treatment of AIDS, Dr. Ahmed said.
The ministry official said Saudi citizens are getting generous healthcare services for all types of medical disorders and receive extraordinary treatment if diagnosed as HIV-positive. Similarly, HIV-positive expatriate workers are also offered treatment until they become well, “after which they are deported to their home countries,” he said.
He said the percentage of HIV positive males exceeds that of females. However, according to figures presented by King Faisal Specialist Hospital (KFSH) in a recently held seminar on HIV/AIDS in Riyadh, 36 percent of HIV positive cases are female. Ten percent of the patients are children, with 87 percent ranging between 15 and 45 years of age. Most of the patients contracted the virus through unprotected sex.
Lubna Al-Ansary, an executive council member and the head of the planning and development department in the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) had told The Saudi Gazette earlier the stigma attached with HIV positive cases means only about 10 out of 25 patients receive treatment in Saudi Arabia.
She had called for more awareness on how to treat AIDS/HIV patients in their houses, work places and in schools.
According to one medical expert, who wished to remain anonymous, many HIV positive carriers can live healthy lives for seven to 10 years without knowing they are carrying the virus. The chances of spreading the infection can therefore be increased.
However, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that for every reported case of AIDS, nine cases go unreported in countries where the statistical information is inadequate. Additionally, healthcare workers might not be trained or encouraged to keep records of confirmed or suspected HIV cases in their clinics.
The medical expert believes if this was true in Saudi Arabia, the number of HIV cases could be as high as 100,000. Another factor which might add to an inaccurate count of HIV positive cases is Saudi society’s conservative nature, he said.
The WHO said studies in Africa have shown the chances of a man contracting HIV from intercourse with an HIV-positive woman was as low as 1.3 percent, while it is much higher for women who have sex with HIV-positive men and men who have intercourse with HIV positive men.
A recent WHO report issued last month said circumcised men may be up to two-thirds less likely to contract HIV through sexual intercourse.
However, medical experts urged religious leaders to encourage moral behavior, promote the concept of early marriage and for society to treat AIDS patients with kindness.
There is also a need for frequent awareness campaigns, with schools, colleges and universities as prime targets and free and voluntary AIDS testing across the country. Encouraging sponsors to repatriate their HIV positive employees is another preventative move.
AIDS awareness in Saudi Arabia is still in its early stages due to secrecy and difficulty of tackling such matter, according to the national campaign to fight AIDS held on the occasion of World AIDS Day.
Addressing the event earlier last year, Princess Aliaa Bint Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz called for making pre-marital AIDS test mandatory.
“This subject is very delicate. I will personally follow up with it, because the AIDS test must be obligatory before signing the marriage contract,” she said.
Currently, the Ministry of Health does not require a pre-marital AIDS test due to financial concerns.
However, according to Dr. Sana Filmban, Director of King Saud Hospital for Infectious Diseases, the Ministry Of Health has already put the issue of pre-marital blood tests on the table to be discussed.
Princess Aliaa assured the audience that she would make sure that these tests are started in hospitals because health comes first.
She also appealed for the introduction of sex education in schools. It is better that children get the correct information from schools, rather than be misinformed, she said.
In order to combat the disease, programs other than the medical test must be initiated. Education about the disease, as well as general sex education, is essential. This way, the public is made aware of how the disease can be prevented.
Contrary to popular belief, AIDS cannot be contracted through touching the same phone, shaking hands, or eating and drinking the same thing. Also, it cannot be picked up on public transportation or even swimming pools.
AIDS patients suffer because of the belief that the disease is as contagious as the common cold. As a result, patients endure humiliation and alienation from society.
Since AIDS can only be contracted through blood transfusions, sharing needles or engaging in forbidden and unsafe sexual activities, AIDS patients also tend to be blamed for contracting the disease.
Faced with hostility and rejected by society, they find themselves struggling to survive. Even finding a job is now impossible. One patient said that he was fired from his government job and not allowed to even be a taxi driver.
One AIDS patient even said, “Some are so desperate to get a job, they say there is no need for medication when they don’t have anything to eat.”
At the event, organizers did plan on coordinating a program with Saudi businessmen to provide new jobs for patients.
According to Filmban, it is the Ministry of Labor’s duty to resolve the employment troubles, since the Ministry Of Health’s role ends in providing them with a cure.
At the conference, there were some criticisms of the evasiveness of organizers. According to Filmban, the conference was merely an exercise in raising awareness, and it failed to provide solid solutions for AIDS activism in the Kingdom.
According to the Ministry of Health, the percentage of people infected with AIDS in Saudi Arabia increased by more than 20% in the last two years, particularly among males.
In 2004, AIDS patients in the kingdom totaled 1111 – 203 men and 59 women. By 2005, the number had increased to 1,201 – 230 men and 81 women. This means, on average, a case is discovered every 3-4 days. AIDS is a relatively new infectious disease, but it has killed over a million people all of over the world since it was discovered over 20 years ago.