KADAR KES BARU AIDS KALANGAN WANITA 16 PERATUS

Laporan terbaru yang dikeluarkan oleh Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia bersama UNICEF (Tabung Kanak-kanak Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu) mendedahkan bahawa pola kes baru jangkitan HIV di kalangan wanita meningkat dari 1.2% pada tahun 1990 ke 16% pada 2007. Dulu, setiap 86 kes positif bagi HIV, hanya seorang melibatkan wanita. Ini bermakna kebanyakan mereka yang disahkan positif boleh diandaikan sebagai penagih dadah atau mengamalkan hubungan homoseks (gay). Kini statistiknya ialah setiap 6 orang yang positif HIV, seorang darinya ialah wanita. Seramai 12 orang rakyat Malaysia yang diuji darahnya positif untuk HIV pada setiap hari.Yang paling memeranjatkan ialah laporan ini menyebut bahawa pola jangkitan di kalangan wanita Malaysia ialah melalui hubungan kelamin antara lelaki dan perempuan.

Malaysia diramalkan mempunyai 300.000 orang penduduk yang bermasalah dengan HIV pada tahun 2015 menurut Datuk Dr Hassan Abdul Rahman, Pengarah Bhg Kawalan Penyakit Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia.

Menurut Datuk Seri Tunku Puteri Safinaz, Presiden Yayasan Sultanah Bahiyah, pada tahun 2007, lebih ramai suri rumah didapati positif bagi HIV berbanding dengan pelacur dan GRO (pekerja seks).

Kesimpulan:
1. Mungkin lebih ramai suri rumah yang sedar tentang bahaya HIV maka mungkin lebih ramai lagi yang pergi menjalani ujian darah. Maka lebih ramailah yang dikesan positif HIV pada tahun 2007 berbanding tahun 1990.

2. Suri rumah mungkin dijangkiti HIV melalui aktiviti suami yang tak bermoral seperti aktiviti "makan luar" di lorong gelap atau di sempadan negara dan sebagainya.

3. Mungkin fenomena masyarakat kini yang kerap bertukar pasangan melalui kahwin-cerai-kahwin lain menjadi faktor penyumbang kadar HIV yang tinggi di kalangan suri rumah.

4. Ada pihak-pihak yang menuduh amalan poligami di kalangan umat Islam penyebab kadar HIV yang tinggi pada suri rumah. Tuduhan ini perlu kajian dengan melihat profil agama suri rumah yang terlibat dengan HIV dan bertanyakan tentang sejarah perkahwinan mereka.

5. Terdapat laporan yang menyatakan bahawa amalan "anal intercourse" penyumbang statistik kenapa suri rumah terlibat dengan HIV. Sila lihat [SINI]

*'More housewives get HIV than sex workers'
sun2surf


* M'sia May Have 300,000 HIV Positive Patients In 2015
Bernama


'More housewives get HIV than sex workers'
by Karen Arukesamy
sun2surf
KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 5, 2008): With an average of 12 Malaysians testing positive for HIV each day, Malaysia has one of the fastest growing AIDS epidemics in the East Asia and Pacific region.

What is more worrying is that the trend is gaining a feminine face, mainly through heterosexual transmission.

A new report released by the Health Ministry and United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) yesterday revealed that the trend of new HIV infections amongst women rose drastically to 16% in 2007 from 1.2% of total new cases in 1990.

“The proportion of women reported with HIV has increased dramatically in the last decade. In 1990, only one in every 86 new HIV infections was amongst women and girls,” Sultanah Bahiyah Foundation chairperson Datuk Seri Tunku Puteri Safinaz said at the launch of the Women and Girls Confronting HIV and AIDS in Malaysia 2008 report.

However, she said, as of December 2007, it was one in six new infections.

“Shockingly, surveys show that in 2006 more housewives tested HIV-positive than sex workers,” Tunku Puteri Safinaz said, adding that there are thousands of children living in homes shadowed by HIV.

The results are a cause for concern as the vulnerability of women and children to HIV are directly linked.

She said for families affected by HIV and AIDS, the disease itself does not have so much impact as it can be kept under control for many years with effective treatment.

“The biggest impact comes from stigma. Mothers whose families are affected by HIV and AIDS are most frightened by the reactions from friends, extended family, colleagues and their communities,” she said, citing the case of a shopkeeper in Kedah who refused to allow a woman with HIV to enter his shop.

She said fear of AIDS could hurt the patients more than the disease.

Stigma can cause a person to be ostracised by friends and family. It can even cause a HIV-positive husband to disallow his wife to be tested, she said.

“Stigma can cause a woman to be so ashamed that she does not seek treatment – meaning an early death and young innocent child left without a mother.”

Tunku Puteri Safinaz said it can also cause the children to be shunned by their teachers and friends because they are infected.

Unicef representative in Malaysia Youssouf Oomar said empowering and encouraging women to be leaders in any HIV response must be the strategy of the future.

“Malaysia must ensure that gender equality and empowerment of women go hand-in-hand with HIV and AIDS prevention and care programmes,” he said.

“We need to get more women involved and get them to work together to get their voices heard.”

He said the level of awareness amongst housewives in Malaysia is not enough to create consciousness.

“The fact that there are more housewives infected with HIV than sex workers is a serious cause of concern. There should be more serious education in learning institutions where students can bring home the knowledge,” he said.
M'sia May Have 300,000 HIV Positive Patients In 2015

Bernama

Malaysia may have 300,000 people affected by HIV by 2015, said Datuk Dr Hassan Abdul Rahman, the Director of the Disease Control Divison of the Health Ministry.

To combat this epidemic, the government has committed RM500 million to implement the National Strategic Plan on AIDS and the Harm Reduction programme between 2006 and 2010, he said at the launch of a Health Ministry and UNICEF Report 2008 entitled, "Women and Girls Confronting HIV and AIDS in Malaysia" here today in conjunction with the 'Special World AIDS Day 2008'.

The National Strategic Plan on AIDS involves various government and non-government bodies as well as international agencies such as UNICEF.

Dato' Seri Tunku Puteri Intan Safinaz, the daughter of the Sultan of Kedah, who officially launched the event, said the trend of new HIV infections occurring among women in the country had risen alarmingly from 1.2 per cent of total new cases in 1990 to 16 per cent in December 2007.

She said reducing the impact of HIV required that the needs and issues of women be addressed at various levels.

A multisectoral approach combining the political will and resources of government agenices, private sector, non-government organisations and faith-based organisations was required to tackle the underlying issues, said Tunku Puteri Intan Shafinaz.

She said there was a need to reverse the underlying socioeconomic factors that contributed to women's HIV risks, such as gender inequality, poverty, lack of economic and educational opportunity, and the lack of legal and human rights protection.

In a survey conducted in 2006, she said more housewives were tested HIV-positive than sex workers, which could have occurred through heterosexual sex.

This was a cause of concern as the vulnerability of women and children to HIV were directly linked to each other, she added.

Tunku Puteri Intan Shafinaz said for families affected by HIV and AIDS, the impact of stigma could be bigger than the disease itself.

Such a stigma could cause a person to be ostracised by friends and neighbours, and a child to be shunned by teachers and school friends because they were HIV positive, she said.

Youssouf Oomar, UNICEF's representative to Malaysia, said the increasing feminisation of HIV in Malaysia was more than just an issue of preventing or controlling spread of the virus as it required greater understanding and response to the vulnerabilities and risks related to gender discrimination and inequality, cultural and religious norms and economics.