Australia’s not alone in reporting a big drop in the number of new cases of HIV – Singapore has also just released figures showing a significant downturn.
313 new cases of HIV were recorded during the 2017 to 18 period. That’s a drop of 28 percent from the previous 12 months – the best result the island nation has reported in 15 years.
Many of the cases in Singapore however are being detected many years after people have become infected, leading for calls for greater emphasis to be placed on getting people to test regularly.
The majority of diagnosis (59%) occurred when people were seeking medical help for another issue or were seeing the effects of having a weakened immune system because of HIV.
Late diagnosis means people are more likely to be passing the virus on to other people, once people are taking HIV medication there is almost no chance of them transmitting the virus.
Heterosexual transmission accounted for the highest proportion of new diagnosis (43 per cent), with homosexual transmission coming in second (42 per cent), and lastly bisexual transmission (10 per cent).
Shifts in accepting gay relationships and the availability of PREP have both been cited as major factors in the lowering the numbers.
The new results come as there is increasing pressure on Singapore to decriminalise homosexuality. The island nation has retained British era colonial laws that made male same sex relationships illegal.
The country’s HIV disclosure laws are also being questioned by experts who argue that the laws have not kept up with changes to HIV treatment and medication.
In June a Singaporean man lost his appeal against a two year jail sentence for not telling his sexual partner that he was HIV positive.
Section 23 of Singapore’s Infectious Diseases Act states that “a person who knows that he has HIV infection shall not engage in any sexual activity with another person unless, before the sexual activity takes place, he has informed that other person of the risk of contracting HIV infection from him; and that other person has voluntarily agreed to accept that risk”.
HIV experts have called for laws like these to be removed, given that people now undertaking treatment for HIV would have an undetectable viral load and it would be hard for the virus to be passed on.
Based on estimates cited by the Singaporean Health Ministry, 72 per cent of those living with HIV are aware of their status. Nearly nine in 10 (89 per cent) of these individuals are receiving treatment. Among those being treated, 94 per cent have an undetectable viral load.
In 2018 20 of the world’s leading HIV researchers published a consensus statement calling for HIV to be decriminalised.
According to the Expert Consensus Statement, at least 68 countries criminalise HIV non-disclosure, exposure or transmission. Another 33 countries are known to have applied other criminal law provisions in similar cases.
OIP Staff
