An infectious diseases expert has urged medical professionals to refrain from imposing their moral values on patients, amid pushback from some doctors against dispensing an anti-HIV drug.
Former Health Ministry deputy director Dr Christopher Lee said healthcare providers should only advise using scientific evidence.
He said there is robust and overwhelming scientific evidence behind the efficacy of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which will be dispensed for free at selected public clinics next year.
“As healthcare providers, we are expected to inform our patients of all evidence-based treatment options.
“It is their decision at the end of the day. We should not impose our personal moral values on our patients,” said Lee, who served as Malaysian AIDS Council president from August 2020 to May 2022.
He was responding to Malaysiakini’s report that a group of Muslim healthcare professionals have opposed the decision to provide free PrEP at public clinics.
They said the move goes against their faith as it is dispensed to those who are not HIV positive and engage in sex outside of marriage or homosexual sex, which is against Islam.
They said this is different to treating patients who already have HIV, which they do without discrimination.
The doctors said they can only support the move if the prescription include “risk-reduction counselling” to deter patients from continuing to engage in high-risk lifestyles.
At private clinics, PrEP can cost between RM80 and RM140 a month.
Pilot programme
On World AIDS Day on Day 1, the Health Ministry announced it will expand the provision of PrEP at public clinics starting next year.
It said, if consumed according to prescription, PrEP can reduce chances of sexual transmission by 99 percent.
Health news website CodeBlue reported the two-year programme involves dispensation of PrEP to up to 10,000 patients in up to 18 public clinics in selected states.
This is funded by a grant by the Global Fund Against Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa said the pilot programme is to test whether dispensing PrEP at public clinics can reduce HIV infections.
She added Islamic experts have also been consulted on the religious edicts of dispensing the drug.
The main mode of transmission of HIV in Malaysia is sexual transmission, mostly consisting of men who have sex with men.
PrEP lowers the viral load in the blood of an infected person, so they cannot transmit it to others through sex or injection. -Mkini
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