Sudan to detect HIV/AIDS among resident foreigners

Sept 6, 2005 (Khartoum) — Sudan said here Tuesday that it will conduct special measures to examine the HIV/AIDS among resident foreigners in the country.

Minister of Health Ahmed Bilal Osman confirmed the government plan in a press statement following local press reports earlier in the day that two officers of the African Union (AU) forces deployed in western region of Darfur died of AIDS on Monday.

Bilal told the press that the AU forces were medically examined before, referring to the incubation period of the disease’s virus during which the plague could be hidden.

The recent death cases caused by the disease alerted the Sudanese government to increase measures to fight the plague and to protect the country, he added.

The Sudanese official revealed that a residency permission will not be offered to any foreign HIV/AIDS carriers and that all AU forces will be re-examined, while appreciating a full cooperation of the union.

He stressed that some surveys on the HIV/AIDS which had been conducted in Darfur states showed that the rate of infection there was under expectation.

According to the local press earlier on Tuesday, two AU officers, one from Malawi and the other from Gambia, died of AIDS on Monday after they were flown from Darfur to Khartoum for treatment.