In this traditionally conservative country Malaysia AIDS Council (MAC) has been building partnerships with national and state level religious departments and the policy making Department of Islamic Development (JAKIM) to provide greater support to the Malay Muslim population who have been hardest hit by the country’s epidemic.
71% of the total cases of HIV are among the Malaysian Muslim community, with injecting drug use being the main driver of the epidemic in the country.
Strict legal, religious and socio-cultural environments affect peoples’ ability to access appropriate HIV and AIDS education, treatment and care services.
MAC’s initiative HIV & Islam was started in 2008. Partnerships have been successfully developed between JAKIM and MAC which are creating opportunities for more meaningful engagement with religious leaders to advocate for evidence informed public health approaches to respond to HIV and AIDS.
An HIV & Islam manual was launched in 2010 with the critically important message about Islam’s intolerance for stigma and discrimination, a huge barrier to HIV prevention, treatment and care in the Muslim community.
The manual has been developed to institutionalise HIV and AIDS education into the formal training of new Muslim leaders. The manual covers issues such as the role of religious leaders in spreading messages of HIV and AIDS awareness, principles of HIV prevention from the perspective of Islam, and healthcare and welfare services available for the Muslim community.
The International AIDS Memorial Day is an annual event in Malaysia. For the first time in 2009 the Memorial Day was held at a mosque, complete with mainstream media coverage. The event was marked with mass Islamic prayers and Qur’an recitals to remember lives lost to HIV, along with a panel discussion on HIV for a popular religious television talk show. Around 1000 people attended.
Last year involved the local Islamic council in Terengganu one of the states hardest hit by HIV and this year it will be led by Selangor State Islamic Council on May 13th.
With the gap in provision of support services for Muslim people living with HIV several religious authorities have improved the availability of home based care services.
In 2010 the first shelter home was opened in Kuang, an hour’s drive outside the capital city Kuala Lumpur. Istana Budi was funded by the Selangor State Islamic Council. It accommodates up to 50 residents and is run by professional care givers providing rehabilitation and basic nursing care.
Another centre is in the pipeline and should be available next year. This is a joint collaboration between MAC, JAKIM and the Federal Territory Islamic Council. It will be a hub where high quality nursing, palliative care, counselling, job placement, family reunification and hospital follow up services will operate.
One of the most highly stigmatised groups in Malaysian society are the transgenders who find themselves shunned by society and struggling to get employment. As a result they often resort to sex work and which increases their risks of HIV and vulnerability to violence.
In an unprecedented move to improve the livelihoods of Muslim transgenders, Dagang Halal, a food products and services company through a joint collaboration with JAKIM and MAC piloted an employment training programme for transgenders.
The aim is to increase greater social acceptance of transgenders within the highly conservative Muslim community. The pilot provided transgender participants with HIV and AIDS education and religious and spiritual lessons, as well as professional skills and development training. At the end participants were given the opportunity to apply for jobs.
Following the success of the pilot it will be replicated in other parts of the country and expanded to include former prisoners, people who use drugs and single mothers.
A mosque in one of the country’s most prominent universities in Kuala Lumpur is currently being used as a place to administer methadone treatment to people who use drugs for a study on treatment of drug dependence.
Based on the findings of the study JAKIM will develop a protocol to standardise operational procedures and packages of services.
This is all part of the wider work being done by the state religious authorities and JAKIM to provide HIV education and spiritual support through outreach activities to those communities most at risk of HIV such as sex workers, transgenders and people who use drugs.
One of the most effective ways to communicate about HIV prevention and awareness to the Muslim public is through Friday sermons. JAKIM have now made it practice that for the Friday sermon closest to World AIDS Day should be about HIV.
Since the start of the HIV & Islam programme in 2009 a total of four one-hour HIV centred episodes have been broadcast on the highly popular Forum Perdana television talk show.
While still in its infancy is it impressive how much has already been achieved by the HIV & Islam programme. The work will continue to create an enabling environment for Muslim people to access HIV prevention, treatment and care thanks to the ongoing commitment of the religious institutions and MAC.
People who are HIV positive can live long and healthy lives if they both know they are HIV positive and have access to treatment and adequate medications
It never did anyone any good to dream but pass it off as impossible without trying to make the dream a reality. It isn’t always easy to dream big, because sometimes the fear of disappointment can get in the way but it’s crucial to push that aside.
There will be a number of obstacles that will stand in your way. There are days when you are going to feel lazy and don’t want to put the energy in to live passionately. Difficult people might come into your life that will frustrate and distract you, life might get busy, situations might come your way that brings worry and frustration. When obstacles come into your life that prevent you from living passionately, you can’t allow them to hold you back. “I am not dying of HIV, I am living with HIV”.
The simple answer to this question is: anyone can get infected with HIV if they’re exposed to it. People from all races, ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations can get the virus. Young, old, teens, babies, married and single; in short, we are all at risk if we don’t take the proper precautions. How do people get infected? Among other ways, babies born to HIV-infected women can, anyone who has sex with an infected person can, people who share needles with an infected person can, or someone who’s received a transfusion from an un-screened blood supply can.
HIV need no longer be something to be feared as with healthy living, support and care HIV/AIDS patients could continue with their lives. HIV is not the end for these people and we should change our perception that AIDS means death.
What are CD4 cells?
CD4 cells are a type of lymphocyte (white blood cell). They are an important part of the immune system. CD4 cells are sometimes called T-cells. There are two main types of T-cells. T-4 cells, also called CD4+, are “helper” cells. They lead the attack against infections. T-8 cells, (CD8+), are “suppressor” cells that end the immune response. CD8+ cells can also be “killer” cells that kill cancer cells and cells infected with a virus.
Why are CD4 cells important in HIV?
When HIV infects humans, the cells it infects most often are CD4 cells. The virus becomes part of the cells, and when they multiply to fight an infection, they also make more copies of HIV.
When someone is infected with HIV for a long time, the number of CD4 cells they have (their CD4 cell count) goes down. This is a sign that the immune system is being weakened. The lower the CD4 cell count, the more likely the person will get sick. Early in the course of the disease, the body can make more CD4 cells to replace the ones that have been damaged by HIV. Eventually, the body can’t keep up and the number of functioning T-cells decreases. As more and more CD4 cells become damaged, the immune system becomes more and more weakened.
There are millions of different families of CD4 cells. Each family is designed to fight a specific type of germ. When HIV reduces the number of CD4 cells, some of these families can be totally wiped out. You can lose the ability to fight off the particular germs those families were designed for. If this happens, you might develop an opportunistic infection.
Did you know:
• Every 12 seconds someone is newly infected with HIV
• 80% of all HIV transmission is sexual
• 60% of people living with HIV don’t know they’re infected.
• People aged 15-24 account for 40% of new HIV infections worldwide.
• There are 33million people living with HIV globally
• HIV is transmitted through blood, sexual fluids and mother to child
• HIV is not transmitted through tears, sweat, saliva or mosquitoes
If you’re having sex the only way to protect yourself from HIV is to use a condom each and every time. No other form of contraception protects against HIV and other STIs. Unprotected anal and vaginal sex can both transmit HIV if one partner is HIV+ Unprotected oral sex also carries a risk, but this risk is significantly lower.
HIV has been here for nearly 27 years, have attitudes changed.
No, so ask yourself why? Ignorance and fear, so changing attitudes and improving education at all ages and levels of our society may make that difference.
More awareness, better understanding and increased acceptance that HIV is here and not going away.
No matter who or where you are, your actions could make a real difference in stopping the spread of HIV and ending HIV prejudice.
About 50% of new HIV infections are caused by people who do not know they are infected. By detecting infection sooner, prevention experts hope that new infection rates will decrease dramatically because more people will be aware of their infection and in turn will take more safer sex precautions. Early detection also provides more more opportunity for education and counseling that decreases high risk sexual behavior. Finally, an added benefit of early diagnosis is early treatment; and early treatment means a better prognosis.