The Director of the National Program for AIDS Control at the Ministry of Health (MOH), Dr. Sana'a Flimban, pointed out that the MOH Infectious Diseases Control General Department, Allah willing, is set to launch the National Campaign for AIDS Awareness, under the theme "Start from scratch towards better life". It involves several activities, including the one to be held at the Kingdom Center in Riyadh, on Thursday and Friday, 2-3/2/1435H; corresponding to 5-6/12/2013, from 5 till 11 p.m. It is to be centered on controlling the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and the sexually-transmitted infection. To that effect, a constellation of specialized physicians are to be hosted to answer youths' questions. They are to touch upon the ways of infection preventing and ways of changing risky behaviors. This coincides with the World Aids Day which is celebrated on December 2 worldwide each year.
This was during the MOH Media and Health Awareness Information Center's hosting for Dr. Sana'a Flimban to answer the questions of callers, both the diseased and healthy ones, on AIDS and all what is associated with it, via the toll-free telephone line of the Ministry of Health (MOH): 8002494444 and the MOH's Twitter account: @saudimoh.
In the meantime, she added that the Ministry of Health (MOH) set the necessary programs and plans with the aim of expanding the AIDS therapeutic services. This aims to intensify the survey, consultation, and examination programs to detect the infected cases, push the limits of the therapeutic umbrella, and improve the calibers and the diagnostic and therapeutic capacities, through the ongoing training and expansion of the consultation services associated with the therapeutic services. This is meant for adhering to treatment, resisting the stigma and discrimination linked to AIDS patients' treating, and working on providing the latest drugs, data, and behavioral and diseases-related information through the follow-up programs.
As regards crafting a way for integrating the AIDS patients into society, and if this would incur negative results regarding spreading the disease by having the AIDS-inflicted patients contact with the healthy, she fielded the fans of the MOH's Twitter account that what counts is the community members should develop some awareness on AIDS as we cannot be certain that any of those living around are healthy and not infected with AIDS. Also, accidental social contact does not transmit infection. More importantly, the AIDS patient should not be vulnerable to any form of discrimination or denial of their human rights, so as not to breed any adverse reaction, leading to the infection spread.
With the same vein, she underlined that the National Program for AIDS Control related to the Infectious Diseases Control General Department launched a website on the internet:
http://www.napksa.com. This aims at educating citizens and those residing within and outside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on AIDS control and sexually-transmitted infection, and raising their awareness on the significance of the voluntary examination consultation, and testing those seeking swift AIDS examination.