Continuing Efforts To Combat HIV/AIDS

26 Nov 2001

New cases of HIV infection reported this year

In the first ten months of 2001, another 185 Singaporeans were detected to be HIV infected. About 88% of the new cases detected this year were males and 12% were females. More than half of the new cases were those aged between 30 and 49 years old. Two children were diagnosed to be HIV infected.

This brings the total number of HIV infected Singaporeans including 15 children to 1547 as at 31 October 2001 (Table 1). Of these, 608 were asymptomatic carriers, 367 have full-blown AIDS and 572 have died.

Though the prevalence of AIDS in Singapore is moderate, the government is not letting up educational efforts to combat the disease.

Mode of Transmission

Sexual transmission remains the main mode of HIV transmission among Singaporeans. Of the 185 cases reported this year, almost 97% acquired the infection through the sexual route with heterosexual transmission accounting for 80% of infections, homosexual transmission 9% and bisexual transmission 8%. The remaining 3% were due to intravenous drug use (2%) and perinatal transmission (1%). Among those who acquired the infection through the sexual route, about 88% had sexual exposure to prostitutes (locally and overseas) and/or casual sex partners. (Table 2).

Profile of HIV Infected Singaporeans

The majority (1,354 cases) of the HIV infected Singaporeans were males and 193 were females (Table 3) giving a sex ratio of seven males to one female. Among the males, 62% were single. For the females, however, the majority (65%) were married.

About 84% were Chinese, 7% were Malays, 5% were Indians and 4% Others (Table 4). About 20% of the HIV infected Singaporeans were working in the sales and service sector and another 20% were production craftsman and plant/machine assemblers (Table 6).

Global and Regional Situation

Around the world, about 36 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, the vast majority of them (70%) in sub-Saharan Africa. South and South-East Asia is the next region with the most number of people living with HIV/AIDS (about 6 million). High HIV prevalence countries in the South and South-East Asia region include Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand. Singapore is classified by the World Health Organisation as a country with moderate HIV prevalence.

Ministry's Advice

The Ministry would like to emphasise that the most important way to avoid AIDS is to remain faithful to one?s spouse and to avoid casual sex and sex with prostitutes. A HIV infected person looks and feels normal during the early stage of the infection. It is therefore not possible to tell if a person is infected or not by looking at his/her appearance.

The Ministry would also like to remind those who are at risk of being infected with the HIV virus not to donate blood. They are advised to see their doctors for HIV screening. All women who are pregnant are also encouraged to go for HIV screening so that measures to prevent transmission from mother to infant could be taken early for those who are found to be HIV infected. The Ministry would like to assure that the identities of persons who come forward for testing and those who are found to be HIV positive will be kept strictly confidential.

We would like to reiterate that AIDS is not transmitted through normal day to day contacts with a HIV infected person at home, in school or at the workplace. A person cannot get AIDS from coughs, sneezes, shaking hands, hugging, sharing of food and cutlery, sharing of toilets, etc. Transmission of the AIDS virus can happen during sexual intercourse with an infected person, through contaminated blood transfusion, sharing of needles with an infected drug addict or from an infected mother to her unborn baby.