CHUA - 300,000 MALAYSIANS WITH HIV/AIDS BY 2015 IF NO ACTION IS TAKEN

THERE could be as many as 300,000 Malaysians with HIV/AIDS by 2015 if
action is not taken, Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek said
today. Reducing the infection rate, he noted, was the only one of the
eight "Millennium Goals" Malaysia had not achieved.

"This forecast is a huge number," he said. "We have taken all the
steps we can by increasing the number of people working to solve this
problem and educating the people.

"It is hoped that programmes such as methadone replacement therapy
and syringe exchange for drug addicts will keep the numbers down or
reduce them," Dr Chua told reporters in Parliament lobby.

He had told the House earlier that 70 per cent of Malaysia's 71,676
registered HIV/AIDS sufferers were drug addicts who had contracted
the infection by sharing syringes.