RIYADH, Dec 2: Some 600 Saudis have reportedly died of the AIDS disease in the country, a top Saudi official was quoted here as saying. The country has 6,787 cases of HIV/Aids of which about 22 per cent are Saudis, the daily newspaper Al Riyadh said quoting the director of the kingdom’s HIV/Aids prevention programme Dr Nasser Al-Hozaim.

An amount of 24 million riyals (approximately $6.4 million) has already been spent on the diagnosis and treatment of HIV/Aids in the country, it was also reported.

Given the five fold increase in the registered AIDS cases over the last 16 months, an AIDS clinic has established in Riyadh also, as part of a programme that has seen similar treatment centres established in Jeddah and Dammam.

The current figure of AIDS victims is nearly five-times more than the 1,285 HIV/Aids cases among Saudis and non-Saudis reported by a top health ministry official in early August 2002.

“The number of Saudis infected with HIV/Aids has reached 1,509 as opposed to the non-Saudis infected with the epidemic, whose number has reached 5,278 and who are deported once they are diagnosed with the disease following routine blood tests for visa purposes,” the daily said.