‘54 new HIV/AIDS cases recorded in Jordan this year’

AMMAN — The total number of HIV/AIDS cases registered in Jordan reached 1,080 since the disease was first diagnosed in 1986, a Health Ministry official said Sunday.

According to Mohammad Abdullat, director of the ministry’s communicable diseases department, 54 new cases of HIV/AIDS were recorded in Jordan since the beginning of this year, of which, 11 are Jordanians and 43 are people of different nationalities.

Following his participation in a recent World Health Organisation (WHO) meeting in Cairo for directors of anti-AIDS programmes in regional countries, Abdullat underlined that the Kingdom is still among the countries with the least prevalence of the disease.

“Most HIV/AIDS cases diagnosed in Jordan are among guest workers and they are immediately deported once proven to suffer from the disease,” he highlighted.

Of the total number of HIV/AIDS cases diagnosed in the Kingdom, 294 were Jordanians and 786 were foreigners of different nationalities.

As for the ways of AIDS transmission among Jordanians over the last 28 years, 65.29 per cent were via sexual intercourse, 22.68 through blood transfusion, 2.41 per cent by drug injections, 3.09 per cent through child birth, and 6.53 per cent due to unknown reasons, according to Abdullat.

The main concern for Jordan is that it is open to travellers and refugees from different countries of the world, he noted, adding that this requires a stricter health monitoring system.

In the majority of cases among Jordanians (77.66 per cent), patients contracted the disease outside Jordan and 20.62 per cent contracted it in the Kingdom, the official said.

The largest number of cases was registered in Amman (194), followed by Zarqa (31), Irbid (11) and Mafraq (6).

Three cases were registered in Madaba, while Tafileh, Karak, Ajloun and Jerash recorded two cases each. One case was reported in Aqaba, and another in Maan.