HIV affected blood donors may be jailed in Malaysia Putrajaya Malaysia

HIV affected blood donors may be jailed in Malaysia Putrajaya Malaysia, The Malaysian government proposes to impose mandatory jail sentence besides a fine on HIV/AIDS sufferers who falsify information about their condition to donate blood.

The Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 would be amended to make this provision, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Mohamed Najib Abdul Razak said.

"There have been several cases of HIV and AIDS sufferers who donated blood. We want to make it a crime," he told reporters after chairing the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on AIDS in this federal administrative capital yesterday.

"You can kill people by that act. If you knowingly donate blood when you are HIV , you could cause the death of other people. That's why we are taking it seriously," Najib said.

Last year, 643 blood donors were found to be infected with various viruses, seven of them with HIV/AIDS in Malaysia.

The trend of the disease in Malaysia was grave with about 11,000 HIV/AIDS cases and 8,334 deaths recorded last year, he said.