UN launches Aids awareness drive in Saudi Arabia

The United Nations has launched an HIV/Aids awareness campaign in Saudi Arabia, where homosexuality and adultery are criminal offences and discussions about sex are taboo, a UN official said yesterday.

Mayssam Tamim, programme coordinator for the United Nations Development Programme, said last week's workshop for teenagers in the capital Riyadh was the first in a series which she hopes may eventually be adopted by schools across the country.

Infection rates in Saudi Arabia remain low on a global scale but experts say a reluctance to talk about sex outside marriage in the conservative society could hinder efforts to keep the virus contained.

"We are the region with the lowest prevalence, but it is increasing at a fast rate," Mayssam told Reuters. "I would hate to see the low prevalence give people a false sense of security."

"We want to assume people are sticking to religious beliefs and not having illicit sexual relations," she said. "We cannot get ourselves to say this is happening, although it is."

Government figures show 989 cases of Aids and 1,181 of HIV were recorded in Saudi Arabia up to the end of June.

Those figures exclude foreigners more than a third of Saudi Arabia's adult population who are swiftly deported without treatment if they test positive for HIV. Saudi patients receive free anti-retroviral therapy and medication.

Last week's workshop, with 25 teenagers, aimed to stimulate discussion about HIV/Aids. Participants acted out receiving positive and negative results for HIV blood tests and talked about how to avoid discrimination against Aids sufferers.

"The workshop does not touch on delicate issues, but it does trigger questions," Tamim said.

She plans to repeat it in a few private schools before seeking a wider audience in government schools. "We would like to work with the government to see how this can be implemented."

But even the understated workshop may still be seen as provocative in Saudi Arabia. "I had kids who said: 'We can't tell our parents what you said today'," Tamim said.

Official publications on Aids in the kingdom reinforce the perception that it remains a largely external threat.

A Ministry of Health Aids information booklet issued earlier this year mixes warnings about the dangers of unsafe sexual contact with reassurances that "our communities are immune with religious teachings and social values".

Figures

A Saudi medical study published last year said 4,761 foreigners more than three times the number of Saudis tested positive for HIV in Saudi Arabia between 1984 and 2001.

But it said the disparity might stem from the fact that foreigners are screened more often than Saudis, and called for a strategy which "conforms to Islamic rules and values" to prevent a possible acceleration in infections.

"Even though the number of HIV cases in Saudi Arabia is still limited, there is a potential for a rapid spread of this virus," it warned.