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Malaysian AIDS data

(6 posts)

  1. dienasty
    Admin

    Reputation:825
     

    Google recently released a set of tools for data visualizations. I know that sounds boring, but there are a couple of cool things you can check out with it. For instance:

    Internet users per 100 people
    Screen shot 2010-03-11 at 12.26.29 AM
    Yay Malaysia's not as addicted to the Internet as Singapore is!

    Net Migration
    (Net migration means total number of immigrants minus total number of emmigrants)
    Screen shot 2010-03-11 at 12.28.40 AM
    This graph doesn't really tell us anything except that people aren't coming into Singapore and Malaysia as much as they once were, though that's nothing in comparison to the number of immigrants to Canada, and what seems like a mass exodus out of Indonesia.

    But the next one, in all honesty, is the one that perplexed me the most:

    HIV Prevalence in percentage of population aged 15-49
    Screen shot 2010-03-11 at 12.22.49 AM

    Full data set may be found here.

    Now here's my question: Malaysia is an Islamic, conservative, moderate country. Why the above graph? I can't figure it out. Any ideas?

    Posted 6 months ago #

  2. one_gurl16
    Member

    Reputation:546
     

    Lack of Sex Ed? Maybe everyone is more concern on whether they might get pregnant or not and fail to realise that there's other problems instead of unwanted pregnancy. Yea sure, use condoms and the pill and other stuff but STDs can still be transmitted through oral sex, anal sex or whatever forms of sex other than "penis-in-vagina" sex.

    Needle sharing? Promiscuity on the rise? Sudden increase in number of patients going for a blood test and discovering that they were carriers of HIV?

    Posted 5 months ago #

  3. jessicaknows
    Member

    Reputation:68
     

    Singaporeans and Canadians aren't addicted to the net. They just recognize it as a source of information and utilize it accordingly to increase their knowledge. XD

    Posted 5 months ago #

  4. dienasty
    Admin

    Reputation:825
     

    They just recognize it as a source of information and utilize it accordingly to increase their knowledge.

    Hah! Yeah right! ;-)

    @Cassie: It's odd, but the numbers just don't add up. Needle sharing sounds like a plausible cause, but we have the death penalty for drugs, for goodness sakes - something that Canada doesn't. Promiscuity on the rise sounds cool though. But I think this is too little data, and right now we're all just able to speculate.

    Anybody else has extra data on the situation?

    Posted 5 months ago #

  5. LiZaRdboi88
    Member

    Reputation:93
     

    @ Cedric: Just a little clarification: DRUG TRAFFICKING is a crime punishable by death; DRUG ABUSE however, isn't. So, I think most of the Malaysian cases of HIV are caused by needle sharing even though I would believe that promiscuity/infidelity is on the rise as well. So in conclusion: HIV is on the rise.

    Posted 5 months ago #

  6. dienasty
    Admin

    Reputation:825
     

    @Zhe Rong: Good point. Thank you for pointing it out. (And yes la, it's a given that HIV is on the rise).

    But I recently came upon an article that sheds some light on the situation:

    WHEN I was ten, I struggled with hard maths. To a Kelantanese girl of similar age today, arithmetic will be the least of her problems.

    Females in Kelantan are already hard-pressed by the lack of educational and job opportunities. Now there is another problem to add to the list. Girls are prevented from having a proper childhood and will instead, be married-off.

    Last week, we read about the marriage of two 10 year-old girls to 40 year-old men. This is commonplace in sub-Saharan Africa or Afghanistan. Sadly, these occurred in Kelantan, which incidentally has the nation's highest rate of incest and HIV/AIDS cases.

    It is shocking, but not surprising that such marriages happened in modern Malaysia. Child marriages, today: Honour killings, next? The political will is too weak, to plug the various loopholes in syariah law which allows recalcitrant men to slip through.

    Granted, still not enough evidence to warrant a proper reason, but it's a piece of the puzzle, I think.

    Posted 5 months ago #

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