INTERVIEW WITH
Dr Fouzia Abdullah Saeed Ghramah
Programme Manager of the National AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Ministry of Public Health and Population, Republic of Yemen.

Listen to the Interview (Windows Media - 1.5 MB)

Dr Fouzia:
My name is Dr. Fouzia Abdullah-Ramana National AIDS Program Manager Republic of Yemen; I’m a community medicine specialist, a medical doctor. HIV/AIDS is one issue which is new here in Yemen. Ten years ago no one spoke about HIV/AIDS in Yemen.

Interviewer:
And what do you know about the current status AIDS in Yemen?

Dr Fouzia:
Yemen is still one of the low prevalence countries, the prevalence rate is 0.1%.
Until today we rely on the reported cases from hospitals, from central labs and from other private hospitals but we all agree that this number is the tip of the iceberg and not the real number.

Interviewer:
Now you have a big problem in Yemen that can be found in a lot of other countries. It is stigma and taboos around AIDS. Can you tell me about this?

Dr Fouzia:
Yemen is one of these countries because HIV/AIDS issues is related to moral things and as you know Yemen is a conservative country and the start of HIV came with the start of homosexuality is still in the mentality of people this concept, but we try as a program to solve these issues to increase awareness concerning how this infection is transmitted, the transmission of the disease and the prevention of this disease, to reduce the stigma and to reduce also the discrimination. We know that most of the cases are hidden because people are afraid of stigma, stigma is a negative factor here.

Interviewer:
Do you think that what you are doing in terms of AIDS prevention can help other Arab countries and can be used as an example of what can be done? In terms of fighting stigma, discrimination. Do you think that what you are doing here can have a positive influence on other neighboring countries?

Dr Fouzia:
Of course In think Yemen is the only country in the region mainly in the Gulf area that already has a national strategy for prevention of HIV/AIDS and this is a positive issue for Yemen. So I think that neighboring countries will use this strategy to start their strategy.

Interviewer:
How do you explain that Yemen is the first one?

Dr Fouzia:
The commitment, political commitment is very clear and if you see the national strategy for the prevention of HIV/AIDS, the first page is the statement from the president. It gives us encouragement to work with and prevent HIV/AIDS in Yemen this is very clear for everybody.