HIV Connect is a self – paced, online learning platform that is designed for primary care physicians and other healthcare practitioners in Malaysia. It is a joint effort between the Malaysian AIDS Foundation (MAF) and the Malaysian Society for HIV Medicine (MASHM) to educate doctors regarding care and management of HIV/AIDS patients. There are 9 modules on the online platform and they revolve around diagnosis and treatment options of HIV/AIDS, pre – and post – exposure prophylaxis of HIV/AIDS, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The authors of these modules are infectious diseases consultants, specialists, and physicians.
We believe that this program is pertinent because from the 2016 Global AIDS Response Progress Report released by the Ministry of Health, it reveals that of the reported 90,603 people living with HIV (PLHIV), only 25,700 people are receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) as of December 2015. Thus, we need to implement measures that will increase ART coverage among HIV/AIDS patients and hopefully, this program is a step in the right direction. Initially, in Malaysia, the epidemic was mainly due to people who inject drugs (PWID). However, this trend has leaned toward sexual transmission with PWID/sexual transmission ratio decreasing from 4 (in 2000) to 0.2 (in 2015). Therefore, we hope that the STIs modules that we have on HIV Connect can assist physicians in addition to the HIV/AIDS modules.
We hope that through this online modules, private care practitioners in particular and doctors in general will have increased awareness in diagnosing and managing patients with HIV/AIDS. In addition, we hope that physicians will educate the patients regarding pre – and post – exposure prophylaxis of HIV/AIDS. And finally, we want doctors to be able to take a thorough sexual history taking and guide patients when it comes to prevention and treatment of STIs.
Izarin Izmir Izhar
Project Coordinator
Malaysian AIDS Foundation (MAF)