Saudi Arabia has detected over 1,000 new HIV cases last year, a health official said, according to the Associated Press.
The Saudi Press Agency quotes deputy health minister Ziyad bin Ahmed as telling an HIV/AIDS conference Monday that the new cases include 439 Saudi citizens and 682 non-Saudis, for a total of 1,221.
According to the AP, the health minister said the Saudi kingdom has only seen 16,334 cases of HIV/AIDS since 1984, and only 4,458 of them are Saudis, 83 percent between the ages of 15 and 19. Men outnumbered women by a ratio of four to one
In Saudi Arabia's conservative Muslim society, talking about sex is forbidden, making healthy sex education a taboo and frustrating efforts at AIDS prevention.
According to the AP, AIDS patients are treated with contempt and some clerics consider the disease God's punishment for prohibited sex.
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