MOH can't deny at-risk groups anti-HIV drug - Lukanisman

 

PARLIAMENT | Deputy Health Minister Lukanisman Awang Sauni says at-risk groups can't be denied access to HIV-preventing drugs despite the Selangor Mufti Department's opposition to it being given to LGBT individuals.

He said this is because it is better to prevent the spread of HIV by dispensing Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP).

“Even though the Selangor government or the mufti (department) has issued a fatwa or statement (on PrEP), we at the Health Ministry are still holding consultation sessions.

“And I see that we can’t deny at-risk groups from getting PrEP and that it is better for us to prevent at-risk groups from spreading HIV to their partners, society, friends, or acquaintances,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat today.

He said this when Wan Razali Wan Nor (Perikatan Nasional-Kuantan) asked for the Health Ministry’s response to the Selangor Mufti Department’s stance.

Deputy Health Minister Lukanisman Awang Sauni

The Selangor Mufti Department had in January said that dispensing 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.

Lukanisman had previously said that abstinence programmes are insufficient in bringing down the number of HIV infections, especially among the youth. - Mkini