Deputy Health Minister Lukanisman Awang Sauni has denied reports that the pilot programme dispensing free HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) may be cancelled.
On the contrary, he said, the programme will be expanded.
“The PrEP pilot programme will continue and I will expand the programme.
“I told the MPs yesterday we cannot prevent at-risk groups from getting PrEP.
“This is the third time I am addressing the issue in the Dewan Rakyat and please be with me and the Health Ministry to do more awareness and explanation to the MPs,” Lukanisman tweeted today.
He was responding to an article by CodeBlue, which yesterday reported Lukanisman saying that the Health Ministry may potentially terminate the programme, while answering a question in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
The deputy minister was also reported by Malaysiakini as saying at-risk groups cannot be denied access to HIV-preventing drugs despite Selangor Mufti Department’s opposition to it being given to LGBT individuals.
The Selangor Mufti Department had in January said that dispending PrEP to LGBT was “colluding in sin”.
However, a fatwa has yet to be issued on the matter.
PrEP has a 99 percent efficacy rate of preventing HIV transmission through sex and a 74 percent efficacy of preventing transmission through injection.
It reduces the viral load in an infected person’s body so transmission through sex or injection becomes highly unlikely.
The Health Ministry is dispensing PrEP for free to target groups at selected public clinics, as part of a two-year pilot study funded by The Global Fund, an international body working against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. - Mkini
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