This follows Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad’s announcement in Parliament last week that STIs have increased to 91% in 2017 compared with 33% in 2002. Sexual activity has become the number one cause of HIV infections, he had said.
However, given that the overall number of cases dropped to 60% in the same year compared with 2007, Dzulkefly said the ministry would increase the rate of access to antiretroviral treatment so at least 95% of the patients could be treated.
Speaking to FMT, Martin Choo, general manager of the Kuala Lumpur AIDS Support Services Society (Klass) said he hoped the minister would study and address the barriers to treatment access, stigma and discrimination in institutions.
“Also, we hope that the health ministry will promote HIV treatment as prevention more widely by endorsing the global community grassroots campaign, U=U (undetectable equals untransmittable),” Choo said.
HIV, or the human immunodeficiency virus, causes HIV infection and over time, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.
AIDS is where the progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening infections and cancers to thrive.
Antiretroviral drugs and medications to treat HIV reportedly prevent the growth of the virus when taken in combination. It does not kill or cure the virus, but as it is slowed down, so is the HIV disease.
On Tuesday, when winding up the committee-level debate for his ministry on Budget 2019, Dzulkefly said antiretroviral treatments could generally prevent the spread of HIV through sexual activity by 97%.
The Amanah strategic director also said that the health ministry would continue to emphasise the importance of safe sex for high-risk populations to contain sexually transmitted diseases from spreading.
Choo pointed to the U=U campaign, which promotes the latest scientific evidence that people living with HIV/AIDS on medication with undetectable viral loads will not transmit the virus to others even with unprotected sex.
“The campaign has already been endorsed by the World Health Organisation, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, the Centers for Disease Control in the United States and over 700 community-based organisations around the world, including Klass.”
Generally, the HIV epidemic in Malaysia has been concentrated in sex workers, transgenders, drug users who inject themselves, and men who have sex with other men.
Awareness on getting treatment is low because they are ashamed to seek treatment.
Last year, the health ministry reported a 43% decline in the number of new HIV and AIDS cases in the country.
However, there was an increase in infections among homosexuals and bisexuals, according to the ministry’s data.