Saudi Arabia has recorded more than 15,000 Aids cases until the end of 2009 and most of the victims are men, a newspaper reported on Monday.
Men infected by the acquired immunity deficiency syndrome were nearly four times the number of women in the world’s dominant oil power, Alsaudi Arabic language daily said, citing Saudi health ministry statistics.
“The first Aids cases in Saudi Arabia was in 1984…until the end of 2009, the number of such cases recorded in the Kingdom stood at 15,213,” it said.
It showed 4,019 of those infected are Saudis while the rest are expatriates although foreigners in Saudi Arabia are nearly a third of the Saudi population.
Children accounted for around three per cent of the Saudi victims of the killer disease and most of them have acquired it through their mothers.
“The ratio of male to female victims among the Saudis is estimated at about 4 to one while nearly 95 per cent of the Saudi women infected with HIV have contracted it through their husbands,” the report said.
“About 95 per cent of HIV infection among the Saudis was transmitted through sexual intercourse….three per cent was transmitted by mothers to their infants and two per cent through contaminated needles.”
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