Health Ministry Officals To Visit Australia On HRP

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 12 (Bernama) -- A group of senior officers from the Health Ministry and Malaysia Aids Council (MAC) will visit Australia next week to study the Harm Reduction Programme (HRP) for drug addicts.
Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek will lead the delegation, which comprises four ministry officials and six MAC members, who will be directly involved in implementing the programme in Malaysia.
He told Bernama Monday that it would be looking into the implementation of the Needle and Syringe Exchange Programme and Methadone Substitution Programme at Australian sites coordinated by the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) in Melbourne and Sydney.
Dr Chua said the group would look into the implementation aspect of the HRP programme -- legal, social, technical, administrative, financial and manpower implications related to the programme.
"We are going to study the successes, strengths and weaknesses of the their programme in order to give us some feedback before we implement similar programmes later," he said when contacted Monday.
Malaysia will embark on a pilot project under the methadone substitution programme involving 1,200 drug addicts next month, followed by another pilot project on needle and syringe exchange for another 1,200 drug addicts beginning next January.
Dr Chua said the Sept 24-27 visit, arranged by the Australian health authorities and Unicef, would include a visit to the Centre for the HRP in Sydney and to the Victoria Police Department headquarters.
The delegation recently attended a workshop here on the HRP conducted by two Australian experts brought in by Unicef.
The experts are State Crime, Drug and Alcohol Coordinator of the New South Wales Police Headquarters Robert Hansen and Director for the World Health Organisation Collaboration Centre for Research for Treatment of Drug and Alcohol in Sydney, Prof Robert Ali.
Meanwhile, in PETALING JAYA, Health Ministry principal assistant director of AIDS/STD Division Dr Wan Mohamed Zahiruddin Wan Mohammed said the Needle and Syringe Exchange Programme in January would include free distribution of condoms to drug users.
It is aimed at preventing sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) to their partners. Speaking to reporters after launching the STD Awareness Campaign at Taylor's College, Dr Wan Mohamed Zahiruddin said the government had allocated about RM5 million for the HIV/AIDS prevention awareness campaign this year.
Earlier in his speech, he said more than 64,000 HIV/AIDS cases had been reported in Malaysia since 1986 and more than 10,000 have died up to end of 2004.
"Out of the total cases in the country, more than 80 per cent and 65 per cent of HIV infections and AIDS respectively are among the productive age group between 20 and 49 years," he said.
Dr Wan Mohamed Zahiruddin said Syphilis and Gonorrhoea infections appeared to be the most prevalent STDs in Malaysia.