United Arab Emirates Officials, International Organizations Meet To Develop Strategy To Fight HIV/AIDS
Officials from the United Arab Emirates' health, education and labor ministries on Wednesday met with international organizations -- including the International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Societies, UNAIDS and the United Nations Development Programme -- to analyze the country's HIV/AIDS policies and to design a five-year national strategy to fight the disease, Gulf News reports. Nada Al Marzouqi, head of the Ministry of Health's HIV Committee, said the meeting is the first step in developing a national response to HIV/AIDS. "We are discussing the first draft of the analysis, finding out what each group" -- such as the "labor ministry on employment options for people with HIV and the education ministry on school awareness programs" -- is doing to prevent the spread of HIV, Al Marzouqi said. She added that the workshop's findings later will be made public and that the committee will continue to monitor HIV/AIDS in the country. The committee also will start the framework for the new strategy, design an action plan and begin to implement the plan, Al Marzouqi said (Muslim, Gulf News, 3/22). The United Arab Emirates at the end of 2006 reported 645 AIDS cases in the country, according to statistics, Xinhua News Agency reports (Xinhua News Agency, 3/22).
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