Women make up 18 per cent of aids cases in Saudi Arabia

Manama: Women represent 18 per cent of the people who contracts Aids in Saudi Arabia in 2014, a senior health official has said.

“We had 444 cases with the HIV last year, including 80 women,” Dr Sana Filemban, National Aids Programme Manager at the Saudi Ministry of Health, said. “The figure is much less than in other countries where women often constitute more than 50 per cent of the people with Aids. Most of the women in Saudi Arabia were infected by their husbands,” she said, quoted by Saudi news site Sabq.

Filemban said that 93 per cent of the HIV cases in the kingdom were transmitted through unprotected sex, while the other cases were through drugs and from mothers to their babies.

The Red Sea city of Jeddah tops the list of the areas where Aids cases were recorded, she added.

“Jeddah represents 30 per cent of the cases and this is due mainly to the density of the population there, including Saudis and foreigners. There is a high level of intercultural exchanges,” Filemban said.

Saudis represent 28 per cent of all cases registered in the kingdom while the non-Saudis were the other 78 per cent.

According to the figures, 80 per cent of the cases were people aged between 15 and 49 years old.

Filemban added that all foreigners benefited from all the necessary health care until they are deported to their home countries and even if they were accorded an exception to stay in Saudi Arabia.