Under the auspices of His Excellency the Vice Minister of Health, Mr. Hamad bin Muhammad Al-Doweila', the World AIDS Day of 2015 was celebrated this morning. During the ceremony, he highlighted that the Ministry of Health (MOH) actively adopts the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV\AIDS (UNAIDS), and supports the AIDS control-related strategies by 2030.
Al-Doweila' pointed out that the incidence rate of HIV/AIDS in the Kingdom is one of the least rates across the world. On this occasion, he extended his thanks to the employees working at the health awareness domain in the Kingdom, for their efforts of combating this disease, meanwhile highlighting that they, thereby, will enter, Allah Willing, within the clique of those referred to in the Holy Qur’an, as Allah Al-Mighty says: {And who ever saved it should be regarded as though he had saved all mankind....}, seeking Allah’s great reward. Moreover, he underscored that such events significantly contribute to achieving the success story of fighting this disease.
“This success story was a result of unstinting efforts, starting from the intensification of survey, consultation and examination programs to detect infections, and ending with the tireless endeavors to raise diagnostic and therapeutic competencies and capabilities; by means of continuous training and expansion of advice services for the therapeutic services,” said Al-Doweila'.
He pointed out that those officials, who are in charge of these programs, did not hesitate to stand by our brothers and sisters affected by HIV/AIDS. Besides, they fight tooth and nail against the discrimination in dealing with these patients and the unfair shame marked haphazardly by some people to these patients.
Furthermore, Al-Doweila' lauded the employees keenness to keep in touch with the latest developments of treatment ways and medications for this disease. He also commended, in particular, the efforts of those employees who pay their attention to the valuable category of mothers and children, in terms of the intensive awareness toward their protection and health care, in addition to providing health care for those people living with this disease.
Al-Doweila' underlined that MOH's responsibility is growing, in accordance with the keen interest shown by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, to citizen's health, in addition to his unstinting support to the MOH's efforts. Within the framework of its endeavors to achieve the royal aspirations, MOH has developed strategic plans focusing on public health support efforts to stand against diseases before infection, by means of promoting the concept of changing the lifestyle (in terms of nutrition and physical activity) in the Kingdom. Also, the strategic plan focuses on enhancing the means of protection against diseases by conducting researches on the diseases nature in the Kingdom, their genomic sequences, ways of transmission from animals to humans or amongst humans, and discovering vaccines and best ways of treatment.
Al-Doweila concluded his speech saying: “Addressing the great challenge posed by AIDS requires great joined cooperation between the MOH, government entities, civil society institutions, and every lover of this country, in an endeavor to raise health awareness against this disease and the ways of its prevention; in addition to supporting those who are already affected with the disease. The momentum of this cooperation will continue until we achieve our aspirations to make this disease a past with no return, Allah Willing.”
For her part, the Supervisor of the MOH's National Program to Combat AIDS, Dr. Sana'a Flimban, said that AIDS has exceeded the third decade of life, drawing the world's attention to deal with its various related issues continuously. She also noted that we should all be pleased with what has been accomplished in this regard; meanwhile we still have to exert more efforts to get rid of this epidemic.
“It is important to apply policies meant to expanding infection detection and providing early treatment with viral antibiotics to dry up sources of infection; as an effective means of prevention. It is also important to provide a social, psychological and medical care to all those patients affected with the virus, in an integrated framework, with maintaining the confidentiality of their information in order to save their dignity,” stated Flimban.
She added that all strata of society play an important role in accelerating the steps of facilitating the implementation mechanisms, and struggling to move forward in the fast-track approach, and pave the way to a promising future.
It is worth mentioning that the activities of Scientific Conference of World AIDS Day in 1437/2015 aim at enhancing the participation of all members of society to eliminate the disease, in line with the National Strategy to Combat AIDS in the Kingdom. Over and above, the MOH campaign will broadcast awareness messages, via different mass media and social media outlets, in addition to several activities, targeting all members of society in general, and those most vulnerable in particular; in an endeavor to raise awareness and knowledge, modify wrong behaviors.