MyMedR

The HIV/AIDS epidemic country paper: Malaysia

Huang M, Hussein H

AIDS Educ Prev, 2004 Jun;16(3 Suppl A):100-9.

Since the first case of HIV/AIDS was identified in 1986 in Malaysia, the number of infected individuals has increased steadily each year, so that by the end of 2002 the cumulative number of people living with HIV/AIDS was 57,835 (51,256 with HIV and 6,579 with AIDS), with 5,676 AIDS deaths. The epidemic in Malaysia, currently in a concentrated epidemic stage, is primarily fueled by drug use, but there is ample evidence that heterosexual transmission has increased over the last few years. A strategic plan that includes prevention, care, support, and treatment run by both the government and nongovernmental organizations has been in place since the beginning of the epidemic. However, Malaysia will need to take a more pragmatic approach to reduce new infections (which numbered 19 each day in 2002) among the youth on whom the country relies for development. Leaders need to recognize that HIV/AIDS is not just a health issue, but also a socioeconomic concern that can eliminate all the developmental gains achieved over the years. Working together, Malaysians can overcome the epidemic, but there is a need to act quickly and to act in effective ways so that the devastating effects (already evident in the number of AIDS orphans and widows) can be reduced.

Matched MeSH terms: HIV Infections/transmission

Malaysia: damages awarded after mother infected through transfusion during pregnancy

Elliott R

Can HIV AIDS Policy Law Rev, 2003 Apr;8(1):77.

PMID: 12924337

Matched MeSH terms: HIV Infections/transmission*

Sexually transmitted disease (STD) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in South East Asia

Ismail R

Clin Dermatol, 1999 5 20;17(2):127-35; discussion 105-6.

PMID: 10330595 DOI: 10.1016/s0738-081x(99)00005-x

Matched MeSH terms: HIV Infections/transmission

Human immunodeficiency virus prevalence in women at delivery using unlinked anonymous testing of newborns in the Malaysian setting

Amar HS, Ho JJ, Mohan AJ

J Paediatr Child Health, 1999 Feb;35(1):63-6.

PMID: 10234638

OBJECTIVE: To determine the community prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in women at the time of delivery in a Malaysian setting.

METHODOLOGY: Cord blood samples from a pilot screening programme for congenital hypothyroidism in 1995 at Ipoh city and surrounding district hospitals were screened anonymously for HIV 1 and 2. HIV status was determined using chemiluminescent technology. Positive samples were retested using the Genelavia Mixt assay.

RESULTS: A total of 4927 samples were tested. The ethnic breakdown included 51.7% Malays, 18.9% Chinese, 14.3% Indian, 2.3% Others and 12.9% unknown. The geographical distribution of samples was 73.9% urban, 24.2% rural and 1.9% unknown. The seroprevalence of HIV positivity was 3.25 per 1000 deliveries (95% CI: 1.92-5.16). Seroprevalence was higher for samples from rural and Malay mothers.

CONCLUSION: The high seroprevalence in this study suggests that the spread of HIV is far wider than that anticipated by mandatory national reporting. It also supports antenatal screening and the use of antiretroviral therapy as an important strategy to reduce perinatal transmission.

Matched MeSH terms: HIV Infections/transmission

Fulltext Sexual behaviour and HIV knowledge among Dermatology cum Genitourinary Clinic attendees, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Choon SE, Sapiah W, Ismail Z, Balan V

Med J Malaysia, 1997 Dec;52(4):318-24.

PMID: 10968107

A study was conducted in the Dermatology cum Genitourinary Clinic, Hospital Sultanah Aminah Johor Bahru to determine a local population's knowledge of HIV and their sexual behaviour in relation to it. A total of 231 men and 217 women were interviewed. The sexual culture seen is one of relatively late age of first sexual intercourse, low level of partner change and low level of condom use. Men reported a higher involvement in risk behaviour. Nearly all the respondents (95.8%) have heard of HIV/AIDS but had incorrect perceptions of its mode of transmission and its associations with risk groups. This study enable us to gain background information about our patients sexual behaviour and HIV knowledge. There is a need to continue HIV education to improve our public's HIV knowledge and the results of this study provides a baseline against which future educational interventions can be gauged.

Matched MeSH terms: HIV Infections/transmission

Epidemiology of HIV and AIDS in the Asia-Pacific region

Dore GJ, Kaldor JM, Ungchusak K, Mertens TE

Med J Aust, 1996 Nov 4;165(9):494-8.

PMID: 8937371

The incidence of new HIV infections in Asia and the Pacific will soon pass that in Africa and is projected to increase into the next century. The AIDS epidemic arising from these infections will have enormous consequences for the health and socioeconomic development of a region encompassing more than half the world's population.

Matched MeSH terms: HIV Infections/transmission*

HIV infection in females dependent on drugs

Wai BH, Singh S, Varma SL

Addiction, 1996 Mar;91(3):435-8.

PMID: 8867206

One hundred and seventy-one drug-dependent females in a drug rehabilitation centre were studied to estimate the prevalence of HIV infection among them. Twenty-four (14%) were positive on the Western Blot test. The presence of HIV infection was significantly correlated with syphilis (p < 0.03) and age (p < 0.001); 83% of those who were HIV positive were intravenous drug users. The need for harm reduction programmes to prevent spread of HIV infection among injecting drug users is stressed.

Matched MeSH terms: HIV Infections/transmission

Migration and AIDS

Wolffers I, Fernandez I

Lancet, 1995 Nov 11;346(8985):1303.

PMID: 7475751

Matched MeSH terms: HIV Infections/transmission*

Global programme on AIDS. AIDS surveillance in the WHO Western Pacific Region

Wkly. Epidemiol. Rec., 1993 Dec 10;68(50):371-5.

PMID: 8305295

Matched MeSH terms: HIV Infections/transmission

Drugs and AIDS in Southeast-Asia

Poshyachinda V

Forensic Sci Int, 1993 Nov;62(1-2):15-28.

PMID: 8300028

Opium dependence was indigenous to countries in the Golden Triangle area in south-east Asia (SA). Heroin epidemics developed in most SA countries in the 1960s and early 1970s and remained a significant problem particularly in Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia until now. In contrast, the island countries in SA seemed quite free from opiate abuse. Intravenous injection (IV) of drugs appeared after the heroin epidemic and currently prevails in countries with a significant opiate abuse problem. IV of opium was particularly common in the highly urbanized cities in Vietnam. Most SA countries started HIV seroscreening in IV drug users (IVDU) around the middle of the 1980s. Rapid epidemic spread of HIV infection was observed in 1988-89 in Thailand and Myanmar. The Highest prevalence of more than 80% was reported from a study of IVDUs in Yangon, Myanmar, followed by Thailand at about 40%. Although HIV infected IVDUs were identified at the same time in Malaysia and later in Singapore and the Philippines, there was no evidence of such a rapid and severe epidemic.

Matched MeSH terms: HIV Infections/transmission

Fulltext Risk behaviour associated with HIV infection among drug abusers seen at the general Hospital, Kota Bharu, Kelantan

Suarn S, Nor Adam M

Med J Malaysia, 1993 Jun;48(2):117-23.

PMID: 8350785

Sixty-one serologically positive HIV infected drug abusers admitted to the Drug Ward, General Hospital, Kota Bharu, were interviewed for possible risk behaviour and AIDS awareness. Fifty-eight subjects were IV abusers while the other 3 were non-IV abusers. All the IV abusers had shared injecting equipment with no regard for sterility. There was non-usage of condoms among those sexually active. Though AIDS awareness was high, there was a lack of risk behaviour change. The drug abusers appear to be a problem group in HIV control measures. Educating the drug abusers and commitment by them to alter risk behaviour is needed.

Matched MeSH terms: HIV Infections/transmission*

Fulltext Human immunodeficiency virus infection in recipients of living unrelated donor renal transplants--a report of 4 cases

Hooi LS

Med J Malaysia, 1993 Jun;48(2):232-5.

PMID: 8350803

Four cases of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV-1) infection, probably following living unrelated donor renal transplantation done in India, are reported. One of them subsequently developed Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

Matched MeSH terms: HIV Infections/transmission*

Drug injecting and HIV infection among the population of drug abusers in Asia

Poshyachinda V

Bull Narc, 1993;45(1):77-90.

PMID: 8305908

Opium has been produced and consumed since the nineteenth century in the areas of Asia currently referred to as the Golden Crescent and the Golden Triangle. In the 1970s and 1980s, most countries from Afghanistan to Japan experienced a heroin epidemic of varying degrees of severity. Opium and heroin abuse appeared to be more severe in countries and areas where those drugs were produced, an exception being Hong Kong, which has had a large population of heroin abusers for more than two decades. Drug injecting was far more common in countries of the Golden Triangle than in those of the Golden Crescent. In Myanmar and Thailand, for example, up to 90 per cent of chronic heroin abusers practised intravenous injection, which appeared to spread to heroin abusers in nearby territories such as the State of Manipur in India. Yunnan province in China, as well as Malaysia and Viet Nam. Amphetamine abuse was more frequent in Japan and the Republic of Korea for a number of years, while illicit production and consumption in the Philippines have recently shown significant increases. The injection of amphetamines was common only in the Republic of Korea. The prevalence of injecting among institutionalized methamphetamine abusers was reported at about 90 per cent. Most countries in Asia first reported cases of infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the mid-1980s. An extremely rapid spead of the epidemic and high prevalence, at rates of from 30 to 90 per cent, of HIV infection among the sample of intravenous heroin abusers were observed in a few countries with a high prevalence of intravenous injecting, such as India (in the State of Manipur), Myanmar and Thailand. The rest had either few reported cases or none at all, even though needle-sharing was found to be common. Great caution should be exercised in interpreting prevalence because of vast differences in methods of assessment. Given the vulnerability of intravenous drug abusers to rapid transmission of HIV infection, the prevention of drug injecting is of paramount importance in arresting the spread of the epidemic. Efforts to contain drug abuse, though difficult, are a principal means of achieving that end.

Matched MeSH terms: HIV Infections/transmission

HIV infection among injecting drug users in north-east Malaysia, 1992

Singh S, Crofts N

AIDS Care, 1993;5(3):273-81.

PMID: 8218462 DOI: 10.1080/09540129308258610

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has spread widely among injecting drug users (IDUs) in countries to the north and west of the 'Golden Triangle' region of South-East Asia; it is likely to have spread southwards to Malaysia as well. In order to assess HIV seroprevalence among IDUs in north-east Malaysia and describe risk factors for HIV infection in this population, we performed a cross-sectional seroepidemiological study among 210 IDUs recruited at the detoxification ward of the General Hospital in the capital city of the north-eastern Malaysian state, Kelantan. Subjects were sequential entrants to the detoxification ward, interviewed about HIV risk behaviour, and tested for antibody to HIV and to syphilis. Nearly a third (62/210, 30%) of these IDUs were HIV seropositive. Three-quarters (159/210) had travelled to Thailand in the preceding 5 years, of whom 32% (51/159) were HIV seropositive; this was associated with injecting in Thailand, but not with sexual contact there. Of those who had not left Malaysia in the preceding 5 years, 26% (11/43) were HIV seropositive, a rate not significantly different from those who had travelled. Travel within Malaysia was common (144/210, 69%) among IDUs interviewed, as was unsafe injecting and unsafe sexual behaviour (20% had shared injecting equipment and 21% had had unprotected intercourse) in other states. In every locale, rates of unsafe injecting behaviour were high (55% sharing in last month), even among those who knew they were HIV infected, and rates of condom usage were low (93% of 160 sexually active IDUs had never used a condom). Syphilis was not associated with HIV infection, but with contact with Thai prostitutes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Matched MeSH terms: HIV Infections/transmission

Fulltext Breast feeding and HIV infection

Cutting WA

BMJ, 1992 Oct 03;305(6857):788-9.

PMID: 1422355

Matched MeSH terms: HIV Infections/transmission*

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