For the first time, NUMed’s Voltage Society organised the Rock The Red Ribbon Together community event to commemorate World AIDS Day at NUMed Malaysia’s campus in Iskandar Puteri, Johor, featuring two talks by experts: Dr Masliza Zaid and Dr Ed Ong .
Both Dr Masliza and Dr Ong are very much involved in the care and management of people with HIV, especially in Johor, which presently has the second highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Malaysia. NUMed’s Dr Ong also has extensive experience in the medicine of HIV internationally. He spoke about how AIDS was first defined in 1982, just a year before he himself had graduated from Newcastle University in Newcastle upon Tyne, as well as about the early years of being a doctor in England, and his interest in treating patients with tuberculosis and HIV then.
“Such messages including best practices to reduce stigma and discrimination including those hard to reach population are pertinent to the younger generation especially those in healthcare.”In her talk, Dr Masliza highlighted current issues and statistics regarding HIV in Malaysia. The first reported case of HIV dates back to 1986. According to the Malaysian Society For HIV Medicine, in 2018, there were 118,883 reported cases, and 87000 people living with HIV in Malaysia.
Rock the Red Ribbon was one of six events planned this year by Voltage. The others included Project Guide , Project Cerebral Palsy , and Project Soup Kitchen .