Aids Day Celebrated [Archives:2000/49/Health]

The United Nations and international community celebrated on Saturday December 1 the AIDS International Day under the theme: Men and AIDS: Men Have a Major Role in Fighting AIDS. The event coincided with the WHO campaign against AIDS.
The campaign puts more emphasis on the role man can play in ensuring protection from AIDS. It urges upon men and youths to adopt virtues to save their and their familys health.
More than 34.3 million people are afflicted with AIDS in the world until 1999, reported the WHO, Mideast office. It said that 18.8 million people died of AIDS this year and that the number of orphans reached 13.2 million children last year. The report added that about 220 thousand people are afflicted with AIDS in the Mideast.
In Yemen, Health Ministry official statistics revealed that there were about 1000 HIV cases registered in the Ministry. These cases have been discovered by chance while conducting blood tests in hospitals or by reporting them.
International reports indicated that these statistics did not show the real number of those affected by the virus indicating that there might be 100 cases compared to each case discovered.
Official statistics of the Health Ministry indicate that 40% of the registered cases are attributed to people coming from Africa where such a virus is rampant. UN report reveals that the number of Yemeni people affected by this virus is on the increase. In 1999, HIV cases reported were found among African prisoners and those affected due to sexual intercourse.
Few months ago 45 HIV out of 889 cases coming for blood transfusion in the Central Lab in Sanaa were reported. Medical and press sources revealed that three AIDS cases were detected in Makha among Eritriean refugees and a fourth one of a patient in al-Thawrah Hospital in Taiz.

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