Educating teenagers on facts abouts Aids

Secondary school pupils in the UAE are the target audience in a new HIV/Aids awareness campaign.

The Red Crescent Authority (RCA), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Ministry of Health are all involved in the scheme, which aims to provide teenagers with information on a medical condition rarely spoken about here.

"This is a global problem that has no borders because it transcends them," said Ruba Al Hassan, of the UNDP. "That's why we have to admit HIV/Aids is a problem all over the world."

"We want to get this issue out into the mainstream and get the cooperation of people who can have an affect, whether it's the police, government departments or other NGOs."

A pilot HIV/Aids initiative for schools and higher colleges was launched in Abu Dhabi last year. The campaign is being expanded to include such other emirates as Dubai, Ras Al Khaimah and Sharjah.

Under the scheme, individual students will be appointed as ambassadors and it is their job to raise awareness about the medical condition among their fellow pupils as well as their relatives.

Sara Shouhail, headmistress at Abu Dhabi's Umm Ammar Secondary School, praised the initiative yesterday. "Our families here, our people here, they do not advise children about this problem in our society. It's a big mistake that we do not talk about [HIV/Aids]," she said.

"Maybe in my school there are one or two girls that may have a sexually transmitted disease. If I do not know about it, they could spread the disease to other people.

"The students here are very happy to learn about this issue, they are not embarrassed."

As part of the initiative, teenagers from a number of Abu Dhabi schools attended a lesson on sexually transmitted diseases at Umm Ammar yesterday. Afterwards, an 18-year-old told Gulf News the educational initiative was important.

"I have spoken to my parents about Aids, but I brought up the subject they did not bring it up. They did not know anything about Aids," Batool Abdullah said.

No official statistics for the number of HIV/Aids cases in the UAE are publicly available and any expatriate diagnosed with the medical condition is sent back to his home country.

Fawzia Sharhan Al Otaibah, a 16-year-old student at Umm Ammar, said she was "very excited" about the educational initiative. "I have learnt many things at this school about Aids and how it can be transmitted from one person to another, and I tell my friends and my brothers about it," she said.

"I made a play for my little brother and my friends and neighbours about Aids and some of the children cried because they are afraid of Aids. I told them not to cry because you should know about it so in future you can prevent it from happening to you."

Organisers hope to appoint student ambassadors at 10 schools in each of the UAE's larger emirates. These ambassadors will then be encouraged to launch their own awareness projects as part of the three-month-long initiative.

Snapshot
Virus weakens body's immune system

The condition: HIV or human immunodeficiency virus causes Aids or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

What it does: HIV destroys a certain kind of blood cell (CD4+ T cells) which is crucial to the normal function of the human immune system. In fact, loss of these cells in people with HIV is an extremely powerful predictor of the development of Aids.

Infection with HIV can weaken the immune system to the point that it has difficulty fighting off certain infections. These infections are known as "opportunistic" infections because they take the opportunity a weakened immune system gives to cause illness.

Transmission: HIV virus may be passed from one person to another when infected blood or body fluids come in contact with an uninfected person's broken skin or mucous membranes.

Infected pregnant women can pass HIV to their baby during pregnancy or delivery, as well as through breast-feeding.

www.thebody.com