AIDS in Saudi Arabia

The Saudi daily al-Watan said in its Tuesday's issue that number of Saudis who are infected with AIDS is 1100 cases until the year 1999 of which 414 cases were actually informed about.

The paper explained quoting statistics at the World Health Organization that the Kingdom is considered one of the countries which have least AIDS cases, noting that the rate of patients who carried the HIV virus does not exceed 0.5 percent of the total number of AIDS infected peoples in the Middle East and North Africa.

However, Saudi medical sources said that the rate of women infected by AIDS in Saudi Arabia is so small and in most cases the reason is the virus transfers from the husband to the wife.