81,000 could be HIV victims

Some 81,000 Malaysians could be victims of HIV/AIDS.
This is the estimate of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), which says the situation in Malaysia has reached generalised epidemic proportions.
The Health Ministry had reported that about 65,000 Malaysians had been diagnosed with HIV since 1996. Of them, 9,444 developed full-blown AIDS and 7,195 died.
But non-governmental organisations believe the official figures are only a conservative estimate.
The special adviser to the UN secretary-general and special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Asia, Dr Nafis Sadik, said the HIV/AIDS situation in Malaysia had passed from the epidemic to the generalised epidemic stage.
A generalised epidemic is when HIV spreads beyond the the high-risk behaviour population groups. It also means the prevalence of HIV among pregnant women is above one per cent.
Dr Nafis said with the generalised nature of the epidemic, Malaysia should implement a surveillance system that would give a cross-sectional profile of the infection in the general population.
"Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek informed me that Malaysia was going to implement a surveillance system to capture the actual HIV/AIDS situation in the country," she told the New Straits Times.
Dr Nafis was in Kuala Lumpur recently to attend a conference.
She said Malaysia also needed to get rid of the denial and the stigma involved with HIV/AIDS.
"In some areas, you need to bring in the religious and community leaders. There are many people who are conservative but you can’t exclude or condemn them. You have to bring them on board, educate and inform them, besides seeking their advice and suggestions.
"People will eventually start to come around."
Dr Nafis praised the Government for meeting religious and community leaders to get their co-operation in its move to offer fresh needles and condoms to HIV-positive drug addicts.
She said Malaysian authorities believed that more than 75 per cent of the cases were related to intravenous drug use. The rest was attributed to sexual transmission.
She said it was important that Malaysians understood the nature of the HIV/AIDS problem and co-operated with the Government to contain its spread.
She said there was always denial and lack of acceptance due to the stigma.
Dr Nafis said Malaysia was among the most modern and advanced nations in the region, with a majority of its people educated.
"Malaysians can understand why it’s important to implement the harm reduction strategy. I am sure the people do not want the disease to spread, like what is happening in some countries," she said, adding India had some five million HIV/AIDS victims.
Source