Materia Medica Malaysiana

Malaysia fights a losing battle against AIDS

KUALA LUMPUR : Malaysia has posted sharp increases in HIV-AIDS patients, a senior minister said, prompting calls on Sunday from AIDS activists for more aggressive measures to contain the disease.

"In terms of AIDS awareness, it is very high in Malaysia. But HIV cases continue to increase because of drug addiction," Health Minister Chua Jui Meng told AFP in a recent interview.


"As long as drug addiction continues in this country, this will pose a problem in terms of increasing numbers of HIV patients," he added.

Despite draconian laws including death for drug traffickers, Malaysia - which describes all proven drug users as addicts - recorded 31,556 addicts in 2001.

Chua said almost 80 percent of new HIV/AIDS cases were drug addicts.

"As long as drug problems increase in this country, you are going to have HIV. We are not going to be able see a plateau. The numbers keep on increasing. It is a curse very directly linked to drugs," he said.

Chua said prostitution accounts for a smaller number of infections.

In conjunction with World AIDS Day Monday, the office of the United Nations in Malaysia and Malaysian AIDS Council would organise a series of AIDS awareness events.

Some 17 years after the first HIV infection case was reported in the country, Malaysia had around 54,000 reported cases of HIV/AIDS as of June.

By December 2002, 5,424 people had died of the disease.

Marina Mahathir, president of the Malaysian AIDS Council said Malaysia lacked a meaningful action plan to prevent the spread of AIDS.

"How else do you explain the constant increase in infections every year. And like everywhere else in the world, the epidemic will move from certain groups to the general public," she was quoted as saying by the Sunday Mail newspaper.

"We need realistic prevention programmes that deal with the real issues. We have to stop being squeamish when we talk about sex and condoms to young people," she said.

"In fact, I once heard a deputy minister say that AIDS is a blessing because it kills off drug users," she added. - AFP