Perhebat kempen kesedaran cegah HIV

February 3, 2016

PERANGI HIV: Karim menerima cenderamata daripada Abang Sardon selepas menghadiri ceramah Kuching Zero HIV sempena projek Bandar Raya Sejahtera Menuju Sifar HIV Menjelang 2020 di Auditorium FINAS di Kuching, semalam.

KUCHING: Penglibatan remaja dalam gejala tidak bermoral seawal usia 15 tahun antara faktor yang menyumbang kepada peningkatan kes jangkitan HIV di negeri ini.

Sehubungan itu, Menteri Muda Pembangunan Belia (Bandar) Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah berkata kempen kesedaran dan pencegahan terhadap masalah itu perlu diperluas dan diperhebatkan di peringkat sekolah.

Katanya, meskipun ia tidak melibatkan sukatan pembelajaran di sekolah, namun program kesedaran mampu membantu memberi penerangan bersifat pencegahan.

“Walaupun tidak melibatkan silibus tetapi ia tidak mendatangkan masalah untuk menjalankan kempen kesedaran tentang bahaya HIV di kalangan generasi muda,” ujarnya.

Karim berkata demikian ketika berucap pada ceramah Kuching Zero HIV sempena projek Bandar Raya Sejahtera Menuju Sifar HIV Menjelang 2020 di Auditorium FINAS di Jalan Sultan Tengah di sini, semalam.

Hadir sama, Pengarah Jabatan Penerangan Sarawak Abang Sardon Abang Hashim.

Menurut beliau, pencegahan dari peringkat awal penting supaya generasi muda tidak terjerumus ke dalam masalah sosial tidak bermoral.

HIV cases up 3-fold in Sarawak

February 3, 2016

Nine in 100,000 Sarawakians have AIDS, Karim warns figure higher if unreported cases taken into account

Abang Sardon (left) presents a memento to Abdul Karim.

KUCHING: Incidences of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection jumped three-fold over the past 10 years in Sarawak.

Quoting statistics, Youth Development (Urban) Assistant Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah revealed that the number of cases increased from 3.3 per 100,000 people in 2003 to nine in 2013.

“In addition, reports also showed that the main cause of HIV infections in Sarawak was due to unprotected sex, which is different from states in Semenanjung Malaysia,” he said.

“And 74 per cent of the identified cases were aged between 30 and 49, which is during the most productive years of human beings that should be focused on developing self, career and family as well as contributing to society and nation,” he added.

Although the figure may seem small, he warned that this issue should not be taken lightly because the data did not include unreported cases.

Abdul Karim highlighted this at the #kuchingzeroHIV with the Media talk organised in conjunction with Kuching Healthy City Project – Towards Zero HIV by Year 2020 at the Auditorium of Malaysia National Film Development Board (Finas) Sarawak Branch along Jalan Sultan Tengah here yesterday.

Jointly organised by the Information Department and Health Department, the project was part of Asean countries’ initiative under the Asean Work Plan IV for HIV from 2012 to 2015 in which Malaysia has made a commitment to achieve ‘Asean Cities Getting To Zero’ Project.