Scary numbers. A big spread of AIDS in Yemen and thousands of victims !!

Aden – Yasmine Tuhami – Health authorities in Sanaa reported hundreds of cases of HIV / AIDS in 2018.

"The program has registered 410 HIV / AIDS cases in 2018, bringing the total number of officially registered people to 5,800, up from 5,390 in 2017," said Abdel Hafiz Ward, head of the national AIDS program. .

Al-Ward added that the Ministry of Health and Population represented by the National AIDS Program and with the support of some partners was providing treatment to 327 people living with the disease. He pointed out that there are five main treatment sites offering free medicines in Sanaa, and Hodeidah.

"The AIDS program has increased the number of sites and centers for testing and counseling in the community, particularly in marginalized areas, IDPs and migrants, from 20 to 48 centers in 2018, in order to detect new early infections, "he said.

"Forbidden intercourse is the main cause of AIDS, as is the non-sterilization of medical instruments and devices, the transfusion of blood from one infected person to another by acupuncture or by scrapes, and can be passed on by the infected mother to the baby. "

And the roses that exist in some provinces do not report new infections to the disease "due to lack of opportunities and exhaustion of screening solutions revealing the disease, and there are cases of concealment of the disease for fear of the community.

Al-Ward pointed out that the program continues to receive new cases because it is being transferred directly to therapeutic sites in order to receive drugs to control the virus, as part of a strategy pursued since 2015.

Dr. Fahad al-Sabri said that there are thousands of people living with HIV in Yemen, who are not registered in official reports.

He added that the lack of a culture of periodic medical examination among citizens was contributing to the spread of the disease, all the more so as the period of incubation of the virus could occur up to 20 years before the onset of symptoms in the infected person, since the holder of the virus during this period was a source of infection for those around him.

According to a report published by the Department of Epidemiological Surveillance in Sanaa, the total number of people infected with AIDS since the beginning of this year is 54 people.