According to the Global AIDS Monitoring 2020 report, there were a total number of 77,903 people living with HIV (PLHIV), among them 3,564 were newly diagnosed with HIV in 2019. Moreover, there were a total of 986 AIDS-related deaths in 2019. At a glance, the top 5 states with the highest percentage of new HIV infection in 2019 were Selangor (30.4%), Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur (12.6%), Johor (9.5%), Sarawak (8.1%), and Penang (8.1%) respectively. The increment continues to be made against the disease in states like Kelantan, Terengganu, and Pahang.
In 2019, Malaysia has achieved a target of 89% PLHIV who were aware of their status, 56% of them received treatments, and 85% were virally suppressed. The biggest challenge identified for Malaysia to reach the targeted 90-90-90 was the linkage to care and the PLHIV’s access to treatment.
Malaysia has been doing quite a great job in reducing the annual number of new HIV infections thanks to the introduction of the Harm Reduction Program. Since 2010, Malaysia has shown a subtle decline in the annual number of new HIV infections. Notwithstanding, a few states (Kelantan, Terengganu, and Pahang) had shown significant decline in new infections from 2010 to 2019 whereas most urbanized states (Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, and Penang) showed an increment in the trend.
Malaysia had seen a slight increase of reported AIDS-related deaths in 2019 compared to 2010, with Sabah being the only state with a declined rate greater than 50% during the 10-year period. Meanwhile, the highest increase in the number of deaths was Selangor with more than 100% increase during the same period. The reported cases were predominantly male since the beginning of the epidemic.