SUNGAI PETANI: THE Malaysian AIDS Council held a state-level AIDS Awareness Day at Hotel Seri Malaysia Sungai Petani recently.
The event was attended by the Environment, Chinese Community Affairs, Health and Unity Committee chairman Datuk Dr Leong Yong Kong and Kedah/Perlis Persatuan Cahaya Harapan chairman Datuk Dr Kamaruzaman Ali.
The event was to raise awareness on the needs of people who are affected by the HIV virus and to educate the public on preventive measures.
“Many people are still not aware of how the HIV virus is transmitted and very often those infected are shunned and ill-treated by society. But we must ask ourselves what we would do if it was one of our family members,” said Kamaruzaman.
He said that this was one of the reasons Persatuan Cahaya Harapan had launched the Needle Syringe Exchange Programme (NSEP) in the state.
“Our first activity centre for NSEP was in Jalan Putra, Alor Star. In 2010, we opened a second centre in Sungai Petani. Now, we have another centre in Kuala Perlis that was opened in 2012.
“We also offer voluntary counseling sessions and testing for AIDS awareness programmes. But it has been a challenging six years since we started this programme, mostly due to the threats and social stigma from the public who perceive that we are encouraging drug use and HIV when in fact we are trying to prevent it,” said Kamaruzaman.
Statistics also show that although there was a decrease in HIV transmission through needles, transmission through sexual contact was on the rise.
According to Dr Leong, more women are being infected with the HIV virus.
“The first person to be infected with this virus was in 1986 and since then, we have 100,000 people in Malaysia who are living with HIV.
“Most of them are below the age of 40 and a growing segment are now women, which is a worrying trend,” said Dr Leong.
Some of the initiatives started by the Malaysian AIDS Council include building strategic partnerships with national and state-level religious departments.
One of the important initiatives include the HIV & Islam programme launched in 2009, with Islamic authorities taking the lead in preventive efforts.
