Saudi says 4,019 citizens have Aids

Saudi Arabia has recorded 4,019 Aids cases among its citizens since the killer disease began spreading as an epidemic in early 1980s, a health ministry official in the Gulf Kingdom was reported on Tuesday as saying.

Ziad Mimish, the ministry’s assistant undersecretary for preventive medicine, said Saudi Arabia is considered as one of the countries with low rates of Aids infection compared with its population of nearly 27 million.

“A total 4,019 Aids cases have been recorded among Saudis between 1984 and 2009……last year, 1,278 cases were discovered including 481 among Saudi nationals,” he told the Arabic language daily Alriyadh.

“We have ensured treatment for all cases among Saudis…we have introduced comprehensive anti-Aids programmes involving monitoring such cases and early detection of Aids and other sexually-transmitted diseases.”

Mimish did not give figures on cases of the acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome among the estimated eight million expatriates living in the world’s largest oil exporter. Foreigners found suffering from Aids in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf oil producers are deported.

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