[Gejala Aids tidakpun berkurang. Ini menunjukkan kegagalan kerajaan dan Marina Mahathir yang dipertanggung-jawabkan. Sepatutnya dia meletak jawatan kerana ternyata caranya tidak berkesan. Mengapa dia diberi laluan untuk mengetuai yayasan itu dan memberi penerangan sedangkan dia tidak memilikipun sebarang kelayakan professional atau kredibiliti? Sepatutnya Yayasan Aids memberi tekanan kepada kerajaan agar menghapuskan pusat membiaknya AIDS. Sebaliknya ia memberi kondom percuma pula.... - Editor]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=200366696

More than 40,000 HIV cases in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: More than 40,000 Malaysians have tested positive to the HIV virus, ranking the nation fifth of the 12 countries in the Asia Pacific region, a news report said Sunday.

Statistics show that 40,049 Malaysians have been confirmed to be HIV positive as of April 2001, said the national news agency Bernama, citing a government report. Of those, 5,103 were confirmed AIDS cases, the news agency said.

The number of HIV cases in Malaysia has risen each year from just three in 1986, when statistics were first recorded. The report did not say which country had the most HIV-positive patients.

Marina Mahathir, president of the Malaysian Aids Council, presented the government's paper on the HIV/AIDS epidemic at a forum Sunday. The report said men accounted for 95 percent of the total.

Nearly three-quarters _ or 29,042 of those confirmed to be HIV positive _ were Malays. Malays comprise nearly 60 percent of Malaysia's 23 million people. Ethnic Chinese and Indians make up the biggest minority groups.

Marina, the daughter of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad, said the Malaysian Aids Council has encouraged Malaysians, especially couples engaged to be married, to undergo medical tests to ensure they are not HIV positive, Bernama said.

However, she stressed that calls for the government to make such tests mandatory was not acceptable, as it would only serve to further discrimination against those confirmed to be HIV positive, the report added.

"What we should do is to encourage couples to discuss the issue, be frank with each other and go for tests together if necessary," Bernama quoted her as saying.