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MELAKA: About 80% of the 73,557 HIV cases in the country are transmitted through sexual behavior.
This is contrary to the common perception that drug addicts are more exposed to the virus because of needle sharing.
Low Chee Leong, Chairman of the State Committee for Health and Drug Control, shared this information in his speech at the national conference "First Cities Getting to Zero 2018" in a large hotel in the country.
Representatives of government agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from across the country attended the event.
The two-day conference was part of Malaysia's efforts to eliminate the HIV / AIDS epidemic by 2030.
Low said Malaysia is committed to the global declaration to reach the three "zeroes", namely, new HIV infection, AIDS deaths and discrimination against patients.
"However, our short-term goal is to achieve a breakthrough in drastically reducing the incidence of infection by 2020 with the collaboration of various stakeholders," he added. .
In addition, the head of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Anita Suleiman, said the pattern of infection has changed significantly over the past 25 years.
"The reason is the intervention of the Ministry of Health, which provided methadone substitution treatment and distributed free sterile syringes to experimental drug users, thus contributing to a significant reduction," she said.
Dr. Anita also reported that the ministry has seen a dramatic increase in HIV infection due to unsafe sexual practices.
Melaka has about 3,755 people living with HIV and about 1,138 people with AIDS last year.
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