A TOTAL of 222 new cases of HIV infections among students of higher education institutions (IPT) were recorded last year, involving those as young as 18 and 19 years old.
Deputy Minister of Health, Datuk Lukanisman Awang Sauni said that this figure brought the total number of cases recorded last year to 3,185 cases.
He said that this figure showed that drug abuse or sexual activities that caused HIV infections had already taken place earlier.
“Following that, the harm reduction that we are introducing this time is using Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) which has been launched in several facilities.
"Although the implementation of PrEP has shown success, what is currently a problem is the access to testing or self-testing for underage teenagers.
"This is because the government does not have a specific legislation and also requires parental permission to conduct testing and this makes it difficult for teenagers who want to come forward," he said.
He said this during a press conference at the Media Roundtable Conference on Harm Reduction from the Perspective of Public Health, Economy and Islamic Religion.
Meanwhile, Lukanisman said that the government is open to a harm reduction approach in dealing with health problems such as drug abuse, smoking and sexually transmitted diseases.
"Although harm reduction methods are not the main policy at this time, they remain an open option in a more inclusive public health strategy that focuses on early prevention.
"In fact, the concept of harm reduction is also used by several drug abuse treatment centres such as the Malaysian Association of Love and other non-governmental organisations in their treatment programmes," he said.
Meanwhile, Head of the HIV, STI and Hepatitis C Sector, Disease Control Division of the Ministry of Health (MOH), Dr. Fazidah Yusman said that there were approximately 83,937 individuals living with HIV nationwide as of the end of 2024.
She said that of that number, it is estimated that approximately 36 percent of patients have not yet been detected or receive treatment.
"Therefore, we are now continuing to expand awareness activities in the community to detect individuals living with HIV in this country.
"We also have a method of using HIV 'self-test', which is if anyone who is at risk and still does not want to come forward for a health screening, they can get it through the Malaysian AIDS Council," she said. – July 1, 2025
