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By Karen Arukesamy, The Sun The new face of AIDS is increasingly female and young.
In the early years of the AIDS pandemic, men vastly outnumbered women among people living with HIV. However, current statistics showed half the number of HIV-positive people globally are female. More than 20 years since its first reported case in 1986, Malaysia has recorded a total of 80,938 infections. Although the new cases reported annually have averaged at 5,640 over the past 10 years, surprisingly, the number of new infections among men has decreased steadily during the period.
The feminisation of the epidemic has bucked the previous trend of male domination among those infected in Malaysia. The latest report by the Health Ministry and United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), entitled Women and Girls Confronting HIV and AIDS in Malaysia 2008, revealed that new HIV infections among women rose drastically to 16% in 2007 from 1.2% in 1990, most of whom were housewives. Women and girls made up of almost one-fifth of newly infected persons nationwide in 2006, and were mainly infected by heterosexual intercourse. This reflects a dynamic unfolding in Malaysia: Men continue to get infected with HIV through injected drug use and women through heterosexual transmission. Unicef representative to Malaysia Youssouf Oomar said in his keynote address that young people are very important in the struggle to control the HIV epidemic in Malaysia. “With HIV infections rising steeply among women in the last 10 years, children are the ones who will bear the consequences of this epidemic,” he said at the launch of the report last week. “Yet children and youth are the ones who have the power to change attitudes and behaviour, and alter the course of HIV for generations to come,” he stressed. “Malaysia has given HIV a strong focus in the national agenda, in line with the country’s commitments to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG),” he added. He said Malaysia is working to achieve the goal of combating HIV and AIDS by 2015. “One of the key strategies to achieving the Sixth MDG is by addressing women and children’s vulnerability to HIV,” he said. Youssuf said both the Health Ministry and Unicef believe there must be a gendered response to the impending HIV crisis confronting women and girls in Malaysia; a response that is sensitive to the socio-cultural context of women’s lives. “Unicef commends Malaysia for recognising the importance of addressing HIV vulnerability among women, young people and children, as identified in Strategy 4 of the National Strategic Plan on HIV and AIDS 2006-2010,” he said. The Unicef and UNAIDS global campaign “Unite for Children, Unite Against AIDS” complements this strategy by addressing four core components of HIV prevention among women, children and young people, he said. “We must increase women’s and girls’ knowledge of the infection; expand access to sexual reproductive health education and testing; increase their ability to protect themselves from HIV; as well as fight gender discrimination and violence,” he said. “We must empower women to make positive decisions in the face of the HIV epidemic – for themselves and for their children,” Youssouf said. At the same time, men should embrace the role that they can play in creating positive change for women and children, he said. The report’s recommendations, among others, are:
» Establish and strengthen the Women, Girls and HIV Desk;
» Enhance the availability and capacity of technical expertise at the National AIDS Secretariat;
» Increase the availability of gender dis-aggregated data and analysis;
» Undertake more social science research to examine HIV-related vulnerabilities and risks;
» Identify and implement specific programmes which address issues of HIV vulnerability for women;
» Encourage women to go for voluntary HIV counselling and testing (VCT); and
» Strengthen sexual reproductive health education and youth initiatives.
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