According to the latest health ministry statistics, some 3,857 housewives in the country are infected with HIV, forming the biggest group of female victims out of a total of 10,228 female HIV carriers or patients. Most of them have got the infection from their husbands.
By comparison, only 621 infected with AIDS have been sex workers, barely a fifth of the number of infected housewives.
It is sad that housewives now become the biggest risk group for HIV, and it is time for our government to do something to safeguard the interest and wellbeing of the housewives.
Currently, section 10(2) of the Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Act 1988 imposes a mandatory duty on medical practitioner who treats or becomes aware of the existence of any infectious disease, which includes AIDS, with the least practicable delay, give notice of the existence of the infectious disease to the nearest Medical Officer of Health.[1]
However, there is no legal obligation to inform or notify the spouse of the individuals who test positive for HIV.
Malaysian AIDS Charter drafted by Malaysian AIDS Council recognizes that every individual has the responsibility to protect himself or herself and others. This shall include, among other things, the responsibility to inform his or her spouse or sexual partner of his or her HIV status and an individual shall have the right to refuse sex if he or she believes that he or she is at risk of being infected by his or her partner.
It is time for us to make this responsibility into a legal obligation.
In Michigan and Indiana, individuals who test positive for HIV are legally obligated to notify past sexual contacts. In Texas and other states, doctors and public health officials are either required or authorized to inform known sexual contacts of patients who have tested positive for HIV. In New South Wales, Australia, if a health worker believes that the behavior of the index case poses a risk to the health of the public, then the worker is obligated to inform the Director-General of NSW health, who has the sole authority to inform partners of the index case without his or her consent.[2]
The proportion of women reported with HIV has increased dramatically in the last decade, from 4% of new cases in 1995 to 12% in 2005 and 18% in 2010. Since the first two housewives were found to have been infected in 1991, the number of infected housewives in the country has been on steady rise.
It is time for the legislators to amend the Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Act 1988 to protect the interest and wellbeing of these housewives who normally come from a social-economic background where they cannot say ‘no’ to a husband.