UAE had 787 Aids cases by end of June 2009

The UAE had 787 Aids cases at the end of June 2009 and around 17 per cent of them had been caused through homosexual intercourse, the Sharjah-based Arabic language newspaper Al Khaleej reported Saturday.

Citing Health Ministry statistics, the papers said nine per cent of the patients had contracted the disease at birth from their infected mothers and another nine per cent through marital relationship involving infected spouses.

Contaminated blood transfusion was the cause of four per cent of those cases while another four per cent were infected through the use of drugs, it said.

“The remaining 57 per cent of the patients contracted the disease through other means,” the report said without elaborating.

Besides those causes, the Acquired Immuno-deficiency Syndrome is also transmitted through normal sexual intercourse.

Alkhaleej Quoted a doctor at Rashid Hospital in Dubai as saying the UAE does not have a unified record of AIDS cases despite the increase in their number.

Dr Abdullah Estadi, head of the contagious diseases at the hospital, said 130 AIDS patients regularly come for examination to the Rashid Hospital. They comprise 112 nationals and 18 expatriates, including six women.

“The expatriates have not been deported because they are convicted in court cases...they are being treated in the country...as for the other AIDS patients, the Hospital has no information about them,” he said.