Thursday, November 30, 2006

Unprotected Sex and Hit Whores

First off, we are not hit whores, slotting in the word sex to get hits on this blog.

Now that we got that off our chest, let us get on with the business of business. It's World AIDS Day this December 1 - well we should actually remember it every day rather than just one day but what-the-heck - other days are crammed with other events anyway.

Was quite disturbed to get an email from the World Health Organisation warning that the HIV/AIDS situation will further worsen unless efforts are stepped up to stop the virus from spreading.

The email went further to say:-

"The number of people living with HIV continues to grow," warned Dr Shigeru Omi, WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific. "High-risk behaviour, such as injecting drug use, unprotected paid sex and unprotected sex between men, is especially evident in the HIV epidemics in some regions, including Asia."

In 2006, an estimated 8.6 million people were living with HIV in Asia, 960 000 of whom were infected in the past year, WHO said. An estimated 650 000 people were living with HIV at the close of 2005. In Viet Nam, the number of people living with HIV has doubled since 2000 and reached an estimated260 000 people in 2005. In Papua New Guinea, the number of HIV/AIDS cases has dramatically increased, with HIV prevalence rates among the adult population in excess of 1% since 2003.


I remember the very first few AIDS patients who died in Malaysia. They were all sent to Ward 23 at the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital, as it was then called. So many precautions were taken to handle the patients before and after they died to prevent the virus from spreading.

Then, cases were few and far in between. That is no longer the situation now. As Charles Cham said in one of his famous t-shirts sold in his The Orangutan House in Malacca, Play Safe. Use Malaysian Rubber!

Well, enough said. Enjoy this public service announcement from the Siber Party of Malaysia (M).

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