On 17th May 2016, the Kuala Lumpur AIDS Support Society (KLASS) held a charity dinner in conjunction with International AIDS Candlelight Memorial Day. The dinner – which also marked the 15th anniversary of the formation of KLASS – was held at the Royal Chulan Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

It was graced by prominent HIV/AIDS advocate and former Malaysian AIDS Council President, Marina Mahathir; founder of KLASS Datuk Dr Christopher Lee; as well as celebrity Red Ribbon supporters Winnie K and Nurul Wahab Depp who performed during the dinner.

Making a difference with KLASS

KLASS was formed in 2001 to provide support for people living with HIV/AIDS and their families. With the significant increase in reported cases between 1986 and 2002, the society is also involved in prevention efforts to curb the rise of the virus in Malaysia.

As an affiliate of the Malaysian AIDS foundation, KLASS raises funds to be used in running KLASS Care Centres which are shelter homes for underprivileged and neglected groups of HIV/AIDS patients, workshops for patients and high risk groups, offering counselling, education, and emotion support to those affected, as well as running various awareness programs for the public.

In her speech during the dinner, Marina Mahathir noted that the main idea behind KLASS was to reach affected Chinese and Tamil communities, as the HIV/AIDS prevention and education programs back then were heavily geared towards the Malay and English speaking communities.

The formation of societies and organisations like KLASS enabled the MAF and the Ministry of Health to reduce the void of information and reach a growing population of people affected by HIV that come from vastly different cultural and language backgrounds.

In memoriam of the lives lost to HIV/AIDS

After the speech, everyone in attendance observed a moment of silence for those who have lost their lives to the deadly virus. Between 1986 and 2010, a reported total of 12,943 deaths were attributed to HIV/AIDS with 3,504 infection cases reported being people under 30 years old.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates that 91,000 to 110,000 people in Malaysia are living with HIV as of 2014, and though the number of HIV related cases peaked in 2002 at 6,978 cases, the downward trend has now stalled.

In 2014, over 3,000 new cases were reported by the Ministry of Health Malaysia, with notification rates decreasing as well. This only serves to reinforce the need for the likes of MAF and KLASS in the fight this epidemic in Malaysia. Changes must be made to how this society educates, treats, and supports those infected and high risk groups like sex workers and injecting drug users.

Medical advances in HIV treatments

On the bright side, science in this field has progressed leaps and bounds. Now, people living with HIV/AIDS no longer live their lives one day at a time. A specialised drug treatment called antiretroviral therapy (ART) uses a combination of medicines to fight the infection by preventing the virus from multiplying, thus allowing those infected to carry on living full lives.

The promise of science and medical research is hopeful. Even couples who wish to have children can do so without passing on the virus to their babies, and infected persons are able to live to an average lifespan, something that was not possible before. In fact, newer HIV research is shifting focus to the long-term effects of HIV, studying the older generation of infected adults – a population that was impossible to study before now.

This charity dinner organised by KLASS is just one of the many strategies they employ to be able to keep offering support and care to the HIV/AIDS community in the country. A total of RM103,900 was raised that night, which will go towards sustaining the society’s efforts.