Materia Medica Malaysiana

New AIDS Cases On The Rise In Sarawak, Says Dr Leo Toyad

MUKAH, May 22 (Bernama) -- New Aids cases are on the rise in the state, Tourism Minister Datuk Dr Leo Micheal Toyad said Sunday.
He said until March this year, it had 479 cases of HIV since its first case was reported in 1989.
"In addition, Sarawak has 220 Aids cases and 102 related deaths," he said when opening the ninth state-level Prostar Convention here.
Dr Toyad said the HIV transmission trend in the state differed from the rest of the country as it was mainly through sexual relationship.
He said that till the end of last year, there were 64,439 cases of HIV carriers, 9,442 of Aids and 7,195 deaths throughout the country.
"Of the HIV cases, 37.7per cent are within the 13-29 age group. About 53 per cent of these are unemployed or without any proper jobs," he said.
Dr Toyad said it was the responsibility of the society to come together in fighting the Aids menace.
He said they could help by giving counselling to youths on the dangers of unhealthy and immoral lifestyle such as sexual freedom and drug addiction.
He said programmes such as the Prostar which provided the youths with information about the illness and how they could avoid it was a step in the right direction.