100 new HIV and Aids cases in Oman every year

Muscat: Oman's Ministry of Health (MoH) is launching a two-year National Aids Community Awareness Campaign on Wednesday to address the issue of HIV/Aids in the community.

"Almost 100 new cases HIV infection are diagnosed annually," said Dr Ali Ahmad Salim Baomer, Head of Aids Section at the MoH.

He said the new campaign, called Let's Talk About Aids, was aimed at reducing discrimination to people living with HIV/Aids in the country.

He said that 1,119 Omanis are living with HIV/Aids infection.

"More than 50 per cent of people living with HIV/Aids in the country are youth between 15-35 years of age and 25 per cent of the figure are women," he said.

He points to "unsafe sexual behaviour" as the major cause for the spread of the disease.

He advised people that to avoid getting infected with HIV, one should abstain from sexual intercourse before marriage, be faithful to their partner and use condoms.