Materia Medica Malaysiana

Number Of Women HIV/AIDS Victims Surging

PENANG, Dec 4 (Bernama) -- The number of HIV-positive women increased from nine cases or 1.2 per cent of all HIV cases in the country in 1990 to 673 cases or 9.7 per cent in 2003, Health Ministry Parliamentary Secretary Lee Kah Choon said.
He said the number of women AIDS cases during the same period rose from zero to 137 cases or 12.7 per cent.
Women should have the right to say no to unsafe sex with their partners as a means of protecting themselves from being infected with HIV/AIDS, he told reporters after launching the state World AIDS Day here.
He said studies showed that women were more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS infection compared to men and that the number of cases had been increasing every year.
The main reason for the rise was the lack of awareness, lack of prevention knowledge and reluctance to go for screening for fear of the public stigma and discrimination associated with the disease.
In Penang, Lee said, the figures till September this year showed that there were a total of 2,531 HIV carriers and 564 infected by AIDS. From the total, 349 had resulted in death.
He said about 90 per cent of them were men and sharing needles for their drug fix was the main cause of infection at 54.5 per cent while heterosexual cases contributed to 30.2 per cent.