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Pamphlet soon on how to avoid Aids

THE Health Ministry is preparing a pamphlet to tell the public about Aids and how to avoid it. A spokesman said it would be released soon.

Aids (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is a disease which leaves the body defenceless against other diseases.

Not everyone with the virus gets the disease. Some studies of homosexuals with the virus showed that only up to one-fifth of them developed the disease within two to five years.

Apart from homosexuals, other high-risk groups are bisexual men with multiple partners, drug addicts who use syringes, haemophiliacs (those with a hereditary disorder that can lead to uncontrollable bleeding) as well as promiscuous heterosexuals.

Aids is still incurable, all those who have developed the disease in other countries have died.

Early symptoms include small bite-like scars below the eye or on the chest. In the advanced stage, there may be black, rock-like scars on the legs.

Other signs include severe sweating at night, fevers, unexpected weight loss, swollen glands in the neck, arm pits or groin, persistent diarrhoea or rare cancers.

Aids may be spread through sexual contact, open cuts, blood transfusions and contaminated injection needles.

There have been no documented cases of Aids spreading through common contact such as sharing a meal and sneezing or coughing.

To protect doctors nurses and other staff at hospitals and private clinics, the Health Ministry has sent out stringent guidelines on the handling of suspected Aids cases. They have been advised to take "extraordinary care" in dealing with Aids victims. Among other things they should wear gloves and gowns when in contact with blood-soiled items, secretions, body fluids and excretions from these patients.

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This article was archived by Roy Tan.