By FATIMAH ZAINAL And CLARISSA CHUNG

PETALING JAYA: Gay sex accounted for more than half of the HIV transmission cases in Malaysia last year, showing a clear shift in the pattern of infection after almost three decades which mostly recorded cases of drug users sharing needles.

In a Facebook posting yesterday, the Health Ministry said in 1990, the majority of HIV transmissions happened due to intravenous drug use (IVDU) or 61% of cases that year. But 20 years later in 2010, heterosexual transmission and men having sex with men (better known by its acronym MSM) started seeing a rise, causing 40% and 8% of cases respectively.

Last year, 94% of HIV cases were transmitted through sexual relations, of which MSM made up 57% of such cases and heterosexual transmission accounted for 37% of cases. “Only 3% of the cases last year were due to drug users sharing needles, ” said the ministry. The entry was uploaded ahead of the national-level World AIDS Day 2019 commemoration to be held in Ipoh on Sunday.

Also in 2018, HIV infections caused by other reasons such as blood transfusion, organ transplant or needle accidents made up only 3% of cases while mother-to-child transmission was successfully eliminated with zero cases reported. In 1990,34% of HIV transmission cases happened due to other reasons while heterosexual transmissions made up only 5% of cases, and no HIV transmission cases linked to gay sex were reported. Read more via The Star