Saudi admits to 6700 AIDS cases:Foreigners make up the bulk of AIDS cases in the kingdom

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

Came across this intresting link on Aljazeera.net on AIDS cases at the rise in

Saudi Arabia.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/50C4A476-0F76-4C23-95F3-6476CAC6B173.htm

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Saudi admits to 6700 AIDS cases

Thursday 23 October 2003, 4:33 Makka Time, 1:33 GMT

Foreigners make up the bulk of AIDS cases in the kingdom

Saudi Arabia has registered more than 6700 cases of AIDS, the Ministry of Health

has announced. Muhammed al-Jifri, head of the Epidemic and Parasitic Diseases

Authority, said on Tuesday the kingdom had 6787 AIDS patients, including 1509

Saudi nationals. Seventy-seven percent of the patients, aged between 15-49, were

men, he said. The Red Sea province of Jidda has the largest proportion of cases

at 41%.

Sexual prohibitions: Last year alone, Saudi authorities registered at least 200

new cases, al-Jifri said. He added 95% of the patients in Saudi Arabia acquired

the virus from " forbidden sexual relations " . Sex outside marriage is prohibited

by Islam. Saudi Arabia has harsh penalties for people who commit adultery or

fornication, including imprisonment or the death penalty.

AIDS epidemic: Seven million foreigners live in Saudi Arabia, which has a

population of about 19 million people.

AIDS, short for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, is spread most often

through sexual contact, contaminated needles shared by drug abusers, infected

blood, and from pregnant women to their offspring. Forty million people

worldwide have the virus, about 29 million of them in Africa. UNAIDS estimates

there will be 45 million new infections by 2010 if efforts to fight the epidemic

are not bolstered.

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Regards,

Ernest Noronha.

E-mail: <ernestnoronha@...>