HIV/AIDS on the verge of becoming an epidemic, says UNDP

Malaysia needs to double its efforts to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, a United Nations Development Progress (UNDP) report said.
With some 64,000 Malaysians detected HIV positive since 1986, the report said, the disease was now on the verge of becoming an epidemic.
UN Resident Coordinator Dr Richard Leete said Malaysia should not take the warning lightly as there was evidence that HIV/AIDS had seriously undermined development efforts in several countries.
“It is evidenced in large parts of southern Africa,” he said in his summary of the UNDP Human Development Report 2005.
The report was launched by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz here yesterday.
Nazri noted that the report sounded a warning about a pandemic because it could pose a big threat to a country’s human development and “for Malaysia, its hard-earned development gained should not be compromised.”
“While there is no cure for HIV/AIDS, there are proven strategies including harm reduction measures that can contain its spread,” he said.
The report was delivered to world leaders yesterday in preparation for the 2005 World Summit from Sept 14-16 in New York.
Nazri said Malaysia’s success in meeting the Millennium Development Goals as stated in the report was due to the consistent policies of the Government and its political will.
“We are proud the report has acknowledged that our poverty level has tumbled, with just 5% of Malaysians living below the national poverty line.
“It also revealed that infant mortality in the country is at seven per 1,000 live births, which is at the same level as the United States,” he said.
According to the report, Malaysia now ranks 61st out of 177 countries in the Human Development Index (HDI).
The country’s HDI of 0.796 is just a fraction short of the UNDP threshold for high human development index of 0.8.
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