Ministry of Health issues statement on HIV cases in Oman

Muscat: The Ministry of Health has issued a clarification on HIV infected registered cases in Oman.

The Ministry denied what was stated by the National Center for Statistics and Information ( NCSI ), on Twitter about AIDAS cases in the Sultanate during 2017 and 2018.

In a statement issued online MOH said: “The Ministry of Health followed what was published on social media by the National Center for Statistics and Information regarding the issue of AIDS cases in the Sultanate, where the tweet showed that the total number of cases of AIDS in the Sultanate in 2018 has reached 2,927 cases, and the annual increase has reached 5.2% in 2018 compared to 2017.“

“Ministry would like to clarify that these figures are for 2017 and not for 2018 and that they reflect the number of cases of HIV infection recorded in the Ministry of Health from 1984 to 2017, that is, the cumulative number includes all the previous years, statistics show that 1,597 cases, about 55% of them are still alive in 2017. “

“This is a positive indicator as the survival rates is the evidence of the effectiveness of treatment programs in terms of prolonging life as there is no complete cure of this disease as is universally known, and the number of cohabitants receiving treatment has reached 84% at the end of 2018,” MOH added.

“The number of registered cases of AIDS was only 145 cases in 2018, compared to 150 cases in 2017, and there are no registered cases of the number of children under 4 years old who have AIDS in 2017, while only one case was registered in 2018. “ the Ministry added

The Ministry calls on all to ensure the correctness and manner of formulation and transmission of information, and to rely on reliable and key sources.