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Source:
www.gov.sg |
Speech by By Dr Balaji Sadasivan,
Senior Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts
and Health at Forum on Gender Issues and HIV/AIDS in Southeast Asia:
"Trends and Challenges for the 21st Century" |
An Excerpt |
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HIV and Children |
In Singapore, since 1985, there have been 25
reported cases of children who acquired the HIV infection from their
HIV-positive mothers. HIV infection in babies can now be prevented with
early screening of pregnant mothers and treatment of those found HIV
infected. |
It is sad to note that before 2005, less
than 30% of pregnant mothers were screened for HIV. However, since HIV
testing was made a standard of care during pregnancy at the end of 2004,
for the first nine months of this year, about 14,000 women or 98-99% of
women seen for pregnancy at the public hospitals and polyclinics were
screened for HIV. |
In the private sector, the screening rates
are similarly high. So far,11 women were detected with HIV. All have
been treated with antiretroviral therapy. Of those who went on to
deliver, their babies have so far tested negative for HIV. With
antenatal screening, we can eliminate HIV infection in children.... |
HIV in Men |
HIV infection in Singapore is predominantly
a male disease with about 90% of new infections occurring in men. There
are two high risk groups - gay men and men who have casual sex outside
Singapore. |
HIV and Gay Men |
Although the prevalence of HIV infection
among gays in Singapore is many times higher than that of the rest of
the adult Singapore population, HIV is less prevalent in the local gay
population than in gay populations in many other countries. |
In Singapore, 30% of HIV infection occurs in
gay men. In the US it is around 68%. In the UK, among those who
contracted the HIV infection within the United Kingdom, about 60% were
gay. In Singapore, our data suggests that 1 in 25 gay men is positive.
In Thailand, 1 in 4 gay men is positive. |
The public health challenge for gay men in
Singapore is to make sure that gays here do not go down the deadly path
taken by their colleagues in Thailand. |
Working with gay activists and NGOs |
My Ministry has regularly met with gay
activists and others with knowledge about the social life of gay men and
discussed our AIDS prevention measures with them. Their input has been
valuable. We will continue to consult with them and take in their
feedback when developing AIDS prevention programs directed at gays. |
We realize that AIDS education material will
have to be customized for this high risk group. We will work with NGOs
like Action for AIDS (AFA) to develop these customized prevention
programs. For next year, we have budgeted about a quarter million
dollars for this effort. |
HIV Self Test Kits |
The FDA approved oral fluid based rapid HIV
test kit is now available in Singapore. It is a non-invasive, convenient
and quick method of testing for HIV without the need for blood taking.
The result is known within 20 minutes. In many ways it is like the
pregnancy self test kits. |
As a pilot project, we are introducing these
HIV self test kits at locations where gays tend to socialize. This will
empower gay men to know their own HIV status. I believe that once people
know their HIV status is positive, they will take precautions to ensure
they do not infect others. |
HIV and heterosexual men |
The second and larger risk group among men
is those who visit sex workers abroad. Our HIV prevention program for
sex workers in Singapore has been effective and last year no sex worker
tested positive for HIV. |
However, these men have casual sex with sex
workers outside Singapore and so they are at risk. We hope to reach this
group of men at their workplace through our recently launched AIDS
Business Alliance. This is an alliance between the Ministry businesses
and the unions and it is chaired by Dr Wang Kai Yuen, the Member of
Parliament for Bukit Timah. |
Through the AIDS business alliance, we are
bringing to the workplace an AIDS education program that will educate
workers on AIDS prevention and fight discrimination against HIV positive
workers by teaching workers how to work with their HIV positive
coworkers. |
HIV and Women |
Although less then 10% of new infections
occur in women, they are a vulnerable group. It is often women with
little or no income who are most at risk. Marriage and the women's own
fidelity are not enough to protect them against HIV infection. Most have
been infected despite staying faithful to their partner. |
Not only are women more susceptible to HIV
infection than men, they also bear much of the social burden of this
devastating disease. When the infected men fall ill, it is usually the
women, who have to care for the sick, manage the households, meet the
financial needs and suffer the stigma. When she falls ill, there is no
one to look after the children and if she dies, the children become
orphans. They are known as AIDS orphans. There are 18 million AIDS
orphans in the world. We are starting to have our own AIDS orphans. |
These women and children need help. KK
Hospital will be setting up a "HIV women and children fund" to help
these women and children The public can help by donating to this fund.
The cheques can be made to KK Women's and Children's Hospital. We will
also protect the identity of these women and children to ensure that
they can lead normal lives. |
HIV prevention in married women |
HIV infection in married women can only be
prevented if their husbands behaved differently. |
I am told that, very often, the husbands had
not intended to infect their wives and were not aware of their HIV
positive status. If these men had known of their positive HIV status,
they might have acted differently. |
MOH is working with GP clinics to make
instant anonymous HIV testing available through the use of self testing
kits. A person who has exposed himself to the risk of HIV infection will
be able to test himself. |
The doctor will advise the person on how to
self test and the result of the test will be known only to the person
being tested. By making HIV testing widely available, we hope fewer
women will become infected by their spouses. |
Informing spouses |
Previously, some wives were not aware of
their spouse's HIV status and so they were at risk of the HIV infection.
Since July this year, we have informed the wife when the infected
husband had not informed her of his positive HIV status. |
Over the last 5 months, 41 women have been
informed by hand-delivered letters that their partner is infected and
that they should go to CDC for testing. |
Many of the initiatives I have discussed
were launched recently. We will need more time to evaluate their
effectiveness. In 2004, there were 311 new cases of HIV infection. |
For the first 10 months of this year, there
were 198 cases. We project the total number this year to be around 250
cases. In effect, this year we will have achieved a 20% decrease in the
number of new cases. This is encouraging but there is much more that we
need to do. |
Full Text of Speech |
Source:
www.moh.gov.sg News Release 5 Dec
2005 |
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