Brunei’s AIDS Council Holds Roadshow to Spread Awareness

According to statistics on HIV/AIDS in Brunei Darussalam, 22 Bruneians comprising of sixteen men and six women have been infected by HIV/AIDS.  Out of this number, fifteen had succumbed to the virus.

A health officer from the Ministry of Health stated this in a lecture on HIV/AIDS awareness, held at the Ministry of Religious Affairs Tuesday.  Doctor Hajah Roslina binti Haji Metussin highlighted the fact that HIV/AIDS cases can result from heterosexual and homosexual intercourse, blood transfusions, and prenatal transfusion.

According to the latest statistics on the global AIDS epidemic in 2002, there are 42 million people living with HIV/AIDS, of which 3.2 million are children under 15 years of age.

There are 5 million newly infected people, of which 8 hundred thousand are children under 15. Meanwhile, the mortality rate has reached 3.1 million, with 610 thousand being children under 15.  The highest regional total of adults and children infected with HIV/AIDS comes from sub-Saharan Africa.

The talk was part of a roadshow, the second this year, organised by the Brunei Darussalam AIDS Council.  Its mission is to provide educational and preventive programmes in an effort to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS through public awareness and understanding of the disease and its transmission.  The council’s next roadshow will be held at the Information Department on 19th of this month.