Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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United Press International; Tuesday, September 08, 1998
Foreigners are required to undergo medical examinations, including HIV tests, to receive legal work permits and residencies. If tested positive, they are forced to leave the country, which quarantines AIDS patients.
Officials at the ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a total of 191 Jordanians were infected with the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome virus, 45 of whom have died since the mid-1980s.
They said 23 of the infected patients were under the age of 18 years, including three children under five.
However, sources at the U.N. World Health Organization say about 600 AIDS cases have been discovered in the country, where the deadly disease is dealt with as a "socially unacceptable" issue.
Patients infected with HIV are quarantined and the subject is regarded as taboo because of its sexual transmission, particularly among male homosexuals and prostitutes.
Homosexuality and prostitution, which exist in Jordan but to an unknown degree, are illegal and looked down upon as "immoral behavior imported from the decadent West," as many Muslim imams (speakers) at local mosques and Islamic clerics describe them.
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