Judge not lest you yourself be judged, or so we have always heard. Yet, how many of us show due regard for such advice, especially when it is related to issues of HIV/Aids?

Malaysians have still not shed their judgmental attitude towards people living with HIV/Aids (or PLWHAs). Stigma and discrimination remain the biggest setback to addressing the pandemic.

These are potent obstacles to testing, treatment and prevention of the HIV infection. This also explains why, in some countries, up to 90 percent of those infected do not know their status and may unwittingly spread the disease.

The negative public perception of PLWHAs has hampered efforts to create a society that is empathic, thereby pressuring those who are either HIV-positive or who have Aids to go 'underground' and to suffer alone.

Another form of discrimination arises when family members abandon PLWHAs or leave them to face death alone.

It is now 18 years since the first HIV case was detected in Malaysia. As yet, the country has little to show for its efforts to fight the spread of HIV/Aids.

The Malaysian Aids Council (MAC) found that youth between the ages of 20 and 30 contributed 40 percent of the HIV/Aids infection rate. At the end of last year, there were 6,756 new cases in this age group, while 700 deaths were recorded.

From conversations with college students, MAC found that they lack information to protect themselves against infection as well as to make informed decisions pertaining to their sexual health.

As a result it published a manual, 'Changing Times'. This is used as a guide by lecturers in private colleges to introduce Aids-related education into such subjects as Malaysian Studies, Islamic Studies and Moral Education - subjects approved for this purpose by the National Accreditation Board.

Still, more needs to be done, not just by agencies like the MAC, but especially by the government, which has been dealing with the issue of HIV/Aids in detached manner.

There is no talk of synergy between the various ministries to pool resources and educate the public, of ways to protect against infection, or to accept those most at risk.

Promoting use of condoms or sex education in schools are not viewed in a positive light by the authorities. Safe sex is a concept alive only in theory.

More worry

The United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAIDS) in its report, '2004 UNAIDS Report on the Global Aids', says the world is losing its race against the virus, which last year infected a record five million people and killed an unprecedented three million worldwide.

The report, compiled every two years, was released ahead of the International Aids Conference underway in Bangkok this week.

Until recently, sub-Saharan Africa was the region worst affected. Now, however one out of four new infections occur in Asia. The report warns that efforts need to be focused on Asia now, before a catastrophe hits this part of the world.

UNAIDS has words of praise for Thailand, which has reduced the rate of infection by encouraging men to use condoms and by discouraging their use of brothels. The number of new infections dropped from 140,000 in 1992 to 21,000 last year.

Last year, two UNAIDS consultants warned that Malaysia would see a 'generalised epidemic' (as opposed to that confined to certain groups) within five years.

Malaysia's concern

MAC chairperson Marina Mahathir shares that concern, and particularly that more homemakers and children - rather than sex workers - are being infected in Malaysia.

MAC statistics reveal that a total of 1,120 homemakers and 467 children under 12 were HIV-positive between 1986 and 2003, compared to 347 sex workers.

Those living with Aids during this period included 217 homemakers and 134 children, against 43 cases involving sex workers.

Marina has said the alarming development calls for a review of the HIV/Aids awareness campaigns, as these have mainly been targeted to drug addicts and sex workers.

(Drug abuse is the main method of transmission of HIV/Aids in Malaysia, with 80 percent of infections arising from sharing of contaminated needles.)

The number of women found to be HIV-positive last year rose by seven per cent to 637, from 629 in 2002. A 10 percent rise was recorded in the number of women living with Aids, from 125 in 2002 to 137 last year.

Marina, who concludes that the disease is no longer confined to high-risk groups, has called for a holistic response.

HIV/Aids is no longer a localised issue. If Malaysians still go about in ignorance or remain in denial, there will be a heavy price to pay.

JJ RAY started her career with a mainstream publication. A non-conformist, she soon saw the barriers that went up whenever, through her writing, she tried to make the world a home for one and all.