Seminar on Role of Media in Struggle Against STD/AIDS in Rabat

Rabat is playing host to a seminar on the role of media in struggle against sexually transmissible diseases, human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) and AIDS.

Opening the seminar Wednesday, Princess Lalla Fatima Zohra, honorary chairwoman of the Moroccan family planning association urged the Moroccan media to fully play their role in struggle against these diseases through fostering public awareness to the dangers of STD.

She also called them to contribute to the efforts and actions conducted in this respect at the national scale.

Describing STDs as "a delicate problem" and "a serious threat" to public health in Morocco, she deplored the lack of sensitization and the persistence of traditions that hamper the treatment of such diseases.

These diseases, she stated further, also negatively impact on the economy as they mainly target the youth, the pillars of any development process.

Nearly 280,000 persons were infected by STDs in 1999, recording an increase of 27 per cent compared to 1998 and an increase of 180 per cent compared to 1992.

Moroccan minister of health, Thami Khyary, who disclosed the figures also announced that since the first aids case was reported in Morocco in 1986, the number of aids patient jumped to 834.

44 per cent of aids patients are aged between 30 and 39 and 66 per cent of them are male.

68 per cent of aids patients were infected in heterosexual intercourse and 9 per cent in homosexual intercourse.

87 per cent of HIV infected persons live in urban areas.

To fight the spread of such contagious diseases, the health department adopted a set of measures such as the improvement of diagnosis and the taking in charge of affected persons, the minister said.

The seminar is debating sexual and reproductive health, sexual health components and strategies of action, and strategies of struggle against STDs and aids in Morocco. The seminar will also discuss the setting up of a Moroccan media network for reproductive health.