Materia Medica Malaysiana

Malaysia registers over 54,900 HIV/AIDS cases

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- Malaysia has registered a total of 54,914 HIV/AIDS cases by the end of June this year, a senior official at the Health Ministry said here on Tuesday.

And 51,487 cases or over 93 percent of the total are men, Parliamentary Secretary to the Health Ministry S. Sothinathan toldthe parliament.

Ethnically, 39,881 cases are Malays, 8,296 Chinese, 4,642 Indians, 637 others while 1,458 foreigners, he said.

Malaysia is a multi-racial country with a population of some 24million. The Malays make up 58.1 percent, the Chinese 24.3 percent, the Indians 6.9 percent and the rest 3.2 percent of the total.

He said Johor State has the highest number of cases at 11,020, followed by Selangor State 6,917, Negeri Sembilan State 5,499, Terengganu State 5,486, Pahang State 5,471 and Kelantan State 4,405.

Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory saw 3,818 cases, Perak 3,623, Kedah 3,394, Penang 2,106, Melaka 1,869, Perlis 722, Sarawak 347 and Sabah 237, he added.

In the high risk group, the infection rate among drug addicts was 18 percent and prostitutes 5 to 7 percent, said the official, adding that infection through blood donation and from mother to child accounted for only about 0.03 percent of the cases.

Malaysia is making efforts to enhance awareness of the deadly disease among the people, including prisoners and rehabilitation center inmates, said the official. Enditem