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Second Aids case detected here

By Gillian Pow Chong

A SECOND Aids case has been discovered - a male in the high risk group who is believed to have contracted the disease abroad.

And the Health Ministry is moving to strengthen the committee that was set up to advise the Government on how to prevent and control the disease.

The Acting Health Minister, Mr Yeo Cheow Tong, revealed this when he returned last night from Sydney where he had attended a four-day World Health Organisation/Australian Ministerial Meeting on Aids.

Mr Yeo said the second case - the first victim had died in April - has not been hospitalised "but has been in and out of hospital".

He also said that a woman, the wife of one of the carriers, is among the nine Singaporeans who have been identified as carriers of the virus which causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

During the Sydney conference, other countries with many Aids cases revealed that for every "full-blown" case of the disease, there were at least fifty to 100 other people in the society who are affected with the virus.

"Going by their experience we must assume that here there are about 100 with the Aids virus," said Mr Yeo.

He said the Advisory Committee on Aids, whose members are mainly medical professionals, will be broadened into a National Aids Committee. This will draft people from other professions too, for example, from the media.

One of their tasks will be to help shift the focus of the present public-education programme on Aids. The campaign warns those in the high-risk groups, for example, homosexuals and bi-sexual men with multiple partners, of the possibility they could contract the disease.

He said that "many of Singapore's nine carriers fall into the high-risk group".

Now, the campaign will include warnings to people who Indulge in "high-risk behaviour” by having multiple partners. It will also stress that Aids can be contracted in heterosexual relationships as men can pick up the virus from women.

"We need to educate our men on this, because they travel abroad quite often,” said Mr Yeo.

There are plans to ask those who have engaged in "unsafe sexual acts to please come forward to be tested for the Aids virus", he said.

He had a message for Singaporeans. "Over three million tourists come in every year. Many Singaporeans travel abroad every year for business or pleasure. Therefore, they must be very careful."

Mr Yeo said that the Philippines appears to have a larger number of Aids cases than any of the other Asean countries. It has 50 carriers, 47 of whom are women.

Thailand has four full-blown cases of Aids. Three others had died from the disease earlier. Malaysia and Brunei have a "couple of cases”, while Indonesia has only one, an expatriate who has been sent home.

Mr Yeo declined to comment on the reluctance of transplant surgeons to remove the kidneys of Dr Kho Yiu Chai, who died after a fall, because they felt too close to him.

• Screening of travellers won't stop Aids, says WHO: Page 4

References[]

Gillian Pow Chong, "Second Aids case detected here", The Straits Times, 25 July 1987[].

Acknowledgements[]

This article was archived by Roy Tan.

Archive of "Second Aids case detected here", The Straits Times, 25 July 1987

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