Kuala lumpur: Data shared by the Malaysian AIDS Council in April revealed a worrying reality: 44 percent of those infected with HIV in the country are youths aged between 20 and 29.
According to BERNAMA News Agency, most new infections involve school leavers and students from institutions of higher learning (IPT).
Two days ago, Deputy Health Minister Datuk Lukanisman Awang Sauni disclosed that 222 cases of IPT students infected with HIV were reported last year. This figure is part of the total 1,091 HIV cases involving IPT students reported between 2021 and 2024. These alarming statistics should serve as a wake-up call for the authorities to urgently investigate why a growing number of educated young people are being infected with HIV. Are the current measures, leftover from the time when HIV infections were mainly due to drug needle sharing, still relevant?
According to Dr Mohammad Mujaheed Hassan, a lecturer at the Department of Social Science and Development, Faculty of Human Ecology at Universiti Putra Malaysia, the current strategies are no longer relevant to today’s youth. He said current HIV awareness programmes still rely on conventional methods such as public lectures, leaflet distribution, and exhibitions, which are less engaging to students. ‘The failure to tailor approaches to the communication style of younger generations has led to poor participation in these programmes. Moreover, most programmes tend to attract those at lower risk of HIV infection, that is, those who are not sexually active or not exposed to risky behaviours,’ he told Bernama.
Citing findings from a study he carried out recently, Mohammad Mujaheed also said many students were unaware of HIV-related programmes in their universities, showing that HIV prevention messages are not effectively reaching the intended audience. ‘A large number of male and female students said they had never received direct information from the university and only learned about HIV through social media or stories shared by friends and acquaintances,’ he said. The study involved 500 respondents from institutions of higher learning in the Klang Valley, Selangor, and Putrajaya.
Discussing the causes of HIV infection, Dr Mohammad Mujaheed pointed to liberal lifestyles, social pressure, and the normalisation of premarital sex, including same-sex relations, without protection as major contributing factors. According to findings from his study, some respondents admitted to becoming sexually active after completing their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia exam, driven by curiosity and a lack of formal education on sexual health. He said some also used social applications such as Grindr, Hornet, and Tinder to find partners.
Shockingly, some students admitted to intentionally transmitting HIV to others as an act of revenge. In such cases, he said, the students knowingly withheld their HIV-positive status from their partners.
Recommending that prevention efforts be improved by adopting more targeted, youth-friendly, and stigma-free strategies, Mohammad Mujaheed said authorities must move away from generic, moralistic, and untargeted prevention messages. ‘There is now an urgent need for bolder and more realistic approaches to address HIV transmission among IPT students,’ he said.
Counsellor Dr Syed Mohamad Syed Abdullah noted that stigma and discrimination remain key barriers to implementing intervention programmes on campus. ‘As long as people lack accurate information and understanding about HIV and AIDS, stigma and discrimination will persist,’ he told Bernama. He also observed that sexual education at universities is still inadequate.
As a counsellor, he believes that guidance and counselling approaches can help universities address the issue of HIV among students. Campus health clinics can also offer voluntary and confidential advice and counselling services on HIV.