The health officials are informing the wife's of HIV affected people about their husband disease.
HIV positive patients in Singapore are on the rise and data show that till date 2584 cases have been recorded out of which 954 are dead, 631 are confirmed to have AIDS and 999 were symptomless.
This has raised an alarm and the Singapore senior minister of health Balaji Sadasivan called for a press conference to inform the public that wives of HIV positive patients will be notified about their husband’s disease.He said that wives will be notified through letters which were personally delivered by health official workers and so far 41 women were intimated. Previously laws prevented the divulgence of HIV positive news to the wife but when this law was removed on July this decision was taken to totally wipe off the spread of AIDS.
Apart from informing the wives the letters also provide information about the counseling services available exclusively for the disease. Although Singapore has the least number of HIV cases, of late there is a sudden rise in HIV numbers within the gay and heterosexual community.
Statistics reveal that in the current year alone 198 cases were diagnosed with HIV with more than 90% being men. The health ministry as part of the program has made screening for HIV mandatory for pregnant women. It is also planning to distribute HIV self testing kits. Rules for testing couples before marriage for HIV and severe punishments for those who spread the disease inadvertently are still in the pipeline.
