Prostar HIV/AIDS programme fails to reach target

NST: The Government’s Prostar HIV/AIDS programme has failed to reach the young Malaysians it was designed to help.
Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad said it had become clear that the programme’s target audience was "the wrong one".
"That’s why we are evaluating the programme," he said. "The target audience was the ‘good people’. It should reach the (correct) target."
Now, the Health Ministry wants to work with Unicef Malaysia to improve it, said Dr Latiff.
Still, Malaysia’s programme is considered a rarity among countries battling the auto-immune disease that has infected millions since its discovery.
Unicef representative to Malaysia Gaye Phillips said very few countries reached out to schools via a programme like Prostar.
"We should not reject Prostar because we already have it in place but we have to review it and make it more exciting to young people," she said.
Phillips added that 19 people contracted HIV every day in Malaysia. For every known person with HIV/AIDS, three were unreported or undetected.
The Health Ministry and Unicef today launched the Malaysian chapter of the Global Campaign on Children and AIDS at the Institute of Health Management here.
Unicef regional director Phillip O’Brien said Malaysia was fortunate to have strong leaders prepared to deal with the epidemic, the fifth fastest-growing epidemic in Asia.
At its launch in 1996, the Prostar programme was expected to reach out to 2.6 million children and teenagers by 2000.
The programme has trained 64,000 youths as peer leaders on issues relating to HIV/AIDS.
The programme is also aimed at educating young people on HIV/AIDS prevention, encouraging healthy lifestyles and establishing Prostar Clubs.
There are 65,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in the country and 25,000 are children who are either infected or affected by the disease.
To date, 117 Prostar Clubs have been formed at state, district and school levels.