[02/July/2009]

ADEN, July 02 (Saba)- An awareness course on AIDS definition was launched on Thursday attended by 25 women of NGOs in Aden governorate.

The course was organized by the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS in collaboration with Social Welfare in Aden.

During the course, the participants will be introduced on the awareness of AIDS and its healthy consequences and ways of its transmission and avoiding it.

The latest study on AIDS awareness in the country, conducted by Health Ministry, concluded that only 34 percent of females in rural parts of the country are aware of AIDS, compared to 95 percent of urban women.

The high level of awareness among urban women shows that public awareness campaigns have been effective, but the government’s efforts to spread awareness in rural areas are still too little.

Yemen carried out during the 2002-2006 period a national anti-AIDS program and established many centers for fighting AIDS in several cities of the country.

But since the start of the National Anti-AIDS Program in 2002 the number of AIDS victims has more than doubled.

Some Yemenis blame neighboring countries for the spread of AIDS into Yemen, and use past statistics to show that as the number of refugees entering Yemen has grown, the number of those infected with the virus has risen.

Experts at the National Anti-AIDS Program believe that as many as 12,000 people could be infected countrywide, with ignorance and a fear of social repercussions hindering many people from getting themselves tested.

The National AIDS Program surveillance report shows that the cumulative number of HIV/AIDS cases reported by the end of 2004 stood at 1,600.

According official statistics, the number of AIDS-infected people, by the end of last April, was 2493.

SA/YA

Saba