UiTM and HIV/AIDS Awareness

UiTM Shah Alam has always held health talks twice a year with topics ranging from heart diseases to viral infections. Yet, HIV/AIDS has always been taboo even in this world class university.

Living in a society governed by culture and religion, teens nowadays have adopted a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach to sex. They don’t ask about it and they don’t tell people about their experiences. In a way, that particular approach would be seen as dangerous considering the many negative impli­cations brought on by the dangers of practicing sex without proper knowl­edge of it. Sex is not a “wham-bam-thank you ma’am” affair. Knowledge is key to the practice of safe sex. Rather than prevent pre-marital sex which is deemed impossible due to the increas­ing libido of the Malaysian population, it’s best to focus on the prevention of the spread of HIV/AIDS in the country.

HIV/AIDS

The Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a disease attack­ing the human immune system caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Vi­rus (HIV). It is spread through an ex­change in bodily fluids through the di­rect contact of the mucous membrane or the bloodstream in which these bodily fluids contain the HIV virus. Such bodily fluids could include se­men, blood, vaginal fluids, preseminal fluids and breast milk. Once the body has been infected by the HIV virus, the effectiveness of the body’s immune system is greatly reduced leaving it susceptible to op­portunistic infections and tumors.

The exchange of these bodily fluids can come from penetrative intercourse, oral sex, blood transfusions contami­nated hypodermic needles exchange of mother to daughter during pregnan­cies, childbirth as well as breastfeeding.

UiTM

Being a world class university has its perks. Collaborations upon collabo­rations with governmental and non-governmental organizations domestic and international alike have been done often and successfully, yet, HIV/AIDS is still considered a topic of taboo.

Kempen Cara Hidup Sihat is the name of the event organized twice a year in UiTM Shah Alam. Health speakers from all over the country are brought in to talk about their respected fields in medicine and health to give awareness and insight on the dangers of these diseases and with health organizations setting up booths that include pictures and pam­phlets to further promote awareness.

Yet, in all of this, HIV/AIDS is still a hindsight. According to a statistic by the PT Foundation, cases of HIV prev­alence monitored from the year 1986 till the year 2008 have reached 84,630 whilst AIDS cases are at 14,576. Deaths reported as a result of these diseases are reportedly at 11,234 in Malaysia.

According to the statistics by the Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH) in-collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2009, HIV prevalence for those below the age of 25 are 14.6% for in­jecting drug users (IDU), 10.8% for female sex workers (FSW) and 10.7% for men who have sex with men (MSM). All in all, our younger populations are suffering through this plight and for a world class university with locations all across the country, this comes as a very huge problem considering the fact that a very high majority of their students are within the age group.

Social Stigma

Have you ever asked your par­ents about where babies come from only to be shot down with glares and threats of “don’t ever ask that again”? If you have, you’re one of the many people to be rejected of knowledge on sex. According to Dr. Nik Kama­rudin, resident doctor at UiTM Shah Alam’s health center, awareness on sex and the implications of practicing safe sex should start at home with parents.

“Parents must be open-minded and if need be, should turn to religious faith for support on the knowledge of intercourse and the preventive mea­sures on how to avoid HIV/AIDS”.

The distribution of condoms as a preventive measure for HIV/AIDS is seen by many as a way to promote pre-marital sex. In many peoples opinion, in our generation, sex does not need to be promoted. Looking from another point of view, we take the Malaysian govern­ments “needle exchange program” as an example. The needle exchange pro­gram is an action taken to pre­vent injecting drug users from contracting HIV/AIDS when using infected needles.

Drug us­ers will go to any drop-in center located in the city and exchange their used needles for new and clean needles free of charge. This act is frowned upon by many, yet it is essential in contain­ing the spread of HIV/AIDS among drug us­ers in the country. The same principle applies to the distribution of condoms to the general public.

If seen as a way to promote sex among youths, married couples will also ben­efit from free condom distributions. Many married couples practicing fami­ly planning due to an unstable financial status will rely on these free condoms to continue intercourse relations. Also, there are many cases in the country in which people have been diagnosed as HIV positive due to an infected blood transfusion as a result of hospital neg­ligence or during births resulting from mother to child transfusion in the chance that the mother is HIV positive.

In a nutshell, the topic of HIV/AIDS should not be seen as taboo but as a serious issue that has been evident for decades. UiTM as a lead­ing university with the highest popu­lation of students should play a role in creating awareness on HIV/AIDS among its students. The phrase “pre­vention is better than cure” comes to mind in these events as until today, there is no definite cure for this disease.