Fighting HIV/AIDS: All agencies must pitch in

New Straits Times, 31 May 2007 - KAMAL SOLHAIMI FADZIL, Kuala Lumpur

THE time has come again to look at the HIV/AIDS problem. The trend over the years has been for the NGOs on one side calling for sex education in schools, condom distribution and more flexibility in addressing Intravenous Drug Users (IDUs) and the Health Ministry on the other side calling for abstinence and to stop sharing needles (preferably stop taking drugs altogether) and monogamy.
What appears to highlight these arguments is not so much personal conviction as the position one speaks from.

The director-general of health explains that Malaysia is an Islamic state and for this reason, addressing the reality of HIV becomes complicated.

If we accept the statistics, every year there is approximately an increase of 10 per cent in the number of people infected with HIV. Generally, it is accepted that 70 per cent of the total figure are IDUs.

If we take the statistics given at face value and what was reported (75,000 HIV patients were infected through drug use), we have approximately 100,000 people infected with HIV today. To highlight the significance of these figures, Australia, with roughly the same population as Malaysia, has about 20,000 HIV patients.
In the late 1980s, when both countries began to discover HIV cases, the number of infected people was very close. Three decades later, Australia has managed to control the number of newly-infected while we have only seen the numbers increase.

It is time we look around us, and ask ourselves what is it that they are doing that has been successful at keeping the number of infected people five times less than ours?

To say that no action has been taken in Malaysia is unfair. Recently there has been the needle exchange programme and limited distribution of condoms to targeted risk groups by NGOs. The ministry has worked hard to provide the necessary medication, counselling, and treatment. It is also common to see posters on public awareness about HIV/AIDS in public hospitals and clinics.

The problem of course is that other than the Health Ministry, other ministries have been slow to pick up their end of the responsibility. We should by now realise that the challenge to reduce the number of newly infected people lies with a broad spectrum of participation and is not only the responsibility of the Health Ministry.

People who are becoming infected are between the ages of 20 and 40. The statistics also show an increase among women. With parents being infected with HIV/AIDS, children are at risk of being orphaned or infected with the virus. Children, women, young adults and working people, form the risk group for HIV/AIDS.

It is a disease that may spread largely from one’s behaviour but the complexity of the implications that HIV creates makes it a concern for everyone. Treating HIV/AIDS may lie in the domain of the Health Ministry but prevention is the concern of everyone including ministries that cover women, children, youth, public education, human resources and health.

The solution needs to be a concerted effort from all ministries and it needs to reflect the secular nature of Malaysia. Hence, it is about time we teach about sexuality and sexual health in schools. We should also teach not only about abstinence but also about responsible sexual practice.

As long as condoms are legal in Malaysia we should enlist it in our fight against HIV. The challenge, as I see it, is not to de-stigmatise condoms, rather it is as a society to take a mature look at sex and sexuality.