PARLIAMENT | The rising cases of male-to-male HIV transmission are partly due to child sex grooming, said Deputy Health Minister Lukanisman Awang Sauni.
He made the conclusion that if data showed that infection started at age 20, it could actually mean that the virus was transmitted when the patient was in their teens.
“This means it (transmission) began at the school level. I see that issues such as grooming are partly why some children or teenagers have no alternatives or are forced to choose this unhealthy lifestyle,” Lukanisman (above) said in the Dewan Rakyat.
He said this while explaining how same-sex relations have become a major source of HIV transmission in the country.
According to Health Ministry data, HIV transmission through sharing needles began to decline in 2010 and while transmission through sex began to increase.
From 2016 onwards, male same-sex transmission became the primary cause of HIV spread.
Meanwhile, 45 percent of reported cases of HIV in 2021 were aged 20 to 29, with 3 percent aged 13 to 19.
Lukanisman was earlier asked by Wan Razali Wan Nor (Perikatan Nasional-Kuantan) about strategies to deal with HIV transmission based on target groups.
The deputy health minister said the minister needs to work with NGOs to create awareness of HIV prevention.
He also said that the Health Ministry will review its pilot programmes on HIV prevention, and whether it needs to continue or whether there needs to be a “way forward” in prevention, especially on “lifestyles” among men.
Lukanisman had previously said that abstinence programmes are insufficient to bring down the number of HIV infections, especially among youth.
The Health Ministry is currently running a pilot programme to dispense Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) - a drug that can prevent the spread of HIV - to at-risk groups as part of a pilot study.
There have been objections to PrEP being dispensed to LGBT individuals but Lukanisman said today that they can’t deny the drug to those affected. - Mkini
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