Malaysians living in denial over disease

NST: LANGKAWI: Malaysia has to be more pragmatic about the HIV/AIDS situation in the country.
"Unfortunately, in Malaysia, we’re still in denial," said Federation of Family Planning Associations, Malaysia (FFPAM) chairman Dr Kamaruzaman Ali.
"We keep saying that our people are very good, we are very religious, very pious... and we are still not doing anything," he said at a Press conference after his speech at the two-day National Advocacy Seminar for Media on HIV Prevention.
He said there were still "blocks to the harm-reduction programme", noting that Islamic countries like Iran were swift to implement the harm reduction programme, along with other countries in the region like Thailand and Singapore.
"We need to work hard. We need to be pragmatic and not emotional."
The three-component harm-reduction therapy consists of a needleexchange programme, methadone substitution therapy and condom distribution to injecting drug users and other high-risk groups.
The FFPAM and the United Nations Population Fund have undertaken a three-year project aimed at "Protecting Young Malaysians from HIV and STIs".
The pilot project covers four States — Kedah, Kelantan, Malacca and Penang — where 420 peer educators in 27 project sites have been trained to discuss "sensitive" issues like HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) with their peers.
The project may be expanded to other States after an evaluation when the pilot project ends next year.