KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - The number of Malaysians infected with the AIDS
virus will increase nearly sevenfold by 1995, the Health Minister predicted.
Lee Kim Sai told reporters that Health Ministry projections show that by 1993 32,000
Malaysians will be carriers of HIV, the virus that experts say causes AIDS, up from
the present 4,437 cases.
Lee said to date 67 people have developed full-blown AIDS in Malaysia, of whom 42
have died.
The minister did not give a reason for the expected rise in HIV infections, but it
appeared that Malaysians were not heeding the ministry's warnings in leaflets and
posters that have been distributed over the past few years.
"Change your lifestyle and don't indulge in high risk activities like casual
sex, visiting prostitutes and intravenous drug addiction," Lee said.
The World Health Organization says 2 million people may die of AIDS by the year 2000
in Asia, where AIDS is spreading faster than anywhere else in the world.
