RIYADH, Nov 29 (AFP) - Conservative Saudi Arabia, where nearly 11,000 cases of HIV/AIDS have been reported, is speaking out about the once-taboo subject, as government and UN bodies run awareness campaigns to fight the disease.
In Jeddah, World AIDS Day will be marked Thursday by ambulances driving through the Red Sea city handing out booklets "containing educational information about HIV and answering the most frequently asked questions," Sanaa Abbas Filemban, director of King Saud Hospital and coordinator of the HIV program in the Jeddah region, told AFP.
A health ministry official said the cumulative reported number of HIV-positive patients since the first case was diagnosed in Saudi Arabia in 1984 was 10,924, with Saudis numbering 2,005 and expatriates 8,919. One third have died.
The male-female ratio is three to one and most cases were in the western Jeddah and Mecca regions "because there are many expatriates there," ministry spokesman Khaled Marghlani told AFP.
Statistics show that 1,111 people, including 262 Saudis, tested HIV positive in 2004.
However, Mayssam Tamim, program coordinator for the UN Development Program (UNDP) who has run workshops on AIDS for teenagers in Riyadh, noted that many cases of HIV/AIDS go unreported, as happens in other countries, "because of the stigma attached to the disease and the fear of losing one's job."
Expatriates who suspect they are HIV-infected also fear being reported to the health ministry and deported if they test positive, she told AFP.
Marghlani insisted there was no policy of deporting HIV/AIDS patients, but that HIV-positive expatriates were repatriated as the infection amounted to a breach of contract under Saudi rules.
"Expatriates come on contracts with employers which state they must not have infectious diseases, and undergo medical checkups in their home countries. They undergo medical examinations again here, and if they are found to have such diseases, it means they have breached the contract and are repatriated," he said.
Some six million expatriates live in oil-rich Saudi Arabia out of a total population of 22.6 million.
HIV/AIDS and human rights were discussed at a conference organized by the health ministry and several UN bodies in Riyadh on November 26-27, but Tamim shared the disappointment of the Saudi Gazette daily which ran a front-page picture of empty chairs at the venue with the headline "Nobody Cares."
There had been "more openness" and more people were targeted at the first such conference, held in Jeddah last year to debate "women and AIDS," Tamim said.
The health ministry, which runs a National AIDS Control Program, tries to promote awareness of the disease through some 2,000 health centers across the country, distributing flyers, putting up posters and educating people, according to Marghlani.
All hospitals are equipped to treat AIDS, and there are four specialized clinics in the country, he said, adding that treatment and medication were free.
Filemban said World AIDS Day activities in Jeddah, where 60 percent of HIV/AIDS cases have been reported, would run through December 13 and include the distribution of educational material in secondary schools, and visits by doctors to places where the young gather to talk to them about the illness.
"For sure, the taboo about AIDS is breaking. The government is dealing with it transparently," she said.
Some believe the strict application of Islamic tenets prohibiting sex out of wedlock has been the best shield against HIV/AIDS.
But Tamim warned that people in Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Middle East might be lulled into "a false sense of security" because their religious beliefs and values preclude permissive sexual behavior and have helped keep down the numbers of HIV-infected people.
"This (AIDS) comes mainly from illicit relationships. I think it is far away from me because I live in Saudi Arabia, where such things don't occur," said Badr Sebaiei, a 17-year-old student.
Fawziya al-Zahrani, a mother of four, said she did not feel the need to speak about the issue with three of her children living at home, but always cautioned her 18-year-old son studying in the US state of Alabama to shun "prohibited relationships which can transmit diseases."
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