The UAE government is in plans to devise a detailed five-year national plan on the fight against the spread of HIV and Aids in the country, Gulf News reported today.Officials from the ministries of health, education and labour, and organisations including the Red Crescent Authority, UNAIDS and UNDP held a meeting yesterday to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the UAE's current policies on the infectious disease.According to the World Health Organisation's 2004-2009 Country Cooperation Strategy Report, the UAE and neighbouring countries have some of the lowest number of reported HIV/Aids cases in the world, due to cultural, social and behavioural norms.
The AIDS Control Program - one of the first programmes of its kind in the region - also contributes to keeping the numbers low. The UAE government has a strict policy of requiring mandatory HIV testing for incoming employees and deporting anyone who is found to be infected. Yesterday's workshop was the first of many steps necessary to formulate a national response to HIV and Aids, Dr Nada Al Marzouqi, head of the UAE HIV Committee at the health ministry, told Gulf News. There were 645 reported cases of Aids among UAE nationals at the end of 2006, according to Khaleej Times newspaper, which quoted the figure from Ali Shukur, under-secretary of the health ministry. 42 more cases have been reported since that figure was announced, according to a report today. "We ensure that no HIV infected person enters the country and that's the reason why we hold medical fitness programmes. There is an estimated increase of 92,000 cases annually in the Middle East region," the UAE Minister of Health, Humaid Al Quttami was quoted as saying. He also said no statistics were available on HIV positive expatriates in the UAE because those found to be infected are immediately sent back. Dr Nada Al Marzouqi told Gulf News that yesterday's discussions centred on the HIV/Aids prevention efforts being made by each group, such as "the Labour Ministry on employment options for people with HIV and the Education Ministry on school awareness programmes."
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