ABOUT 300,000 people in the country may be infected with HIV by 2015 if no effective prevention measures are taken, reported Tamil Nesan.

From this figure, about 188,838 would be victims aged between 15 and 49, said Dr Janizah Abd Ghani from the Penang Health Department at the 'Women, Girls and HIV/AIDS' workshop held at Universiti Sains Malaysia.

She added the Health Ministry was aware of the HIV/AIDS threat and several programmes had been drawn up to increase public awareness. Currently, the number of HIV carriers was decreasing, but more women were getting infected through sexual intercourse.

Over a 17-year period (1990 to 2007), there had been a 27.7% increase in the rate of transmission through sex; from 5.2% in 1990 to 32.9% in 2007.

Dr Janizah said HIV transmission through the sharing of needles by intravenous drug users had declined from 60.4% in 1990 to 57.3% in 2007. Statistics from the Malaysian Aids Council as of June 2009 revealed there were 1,497 HIV/AIDS sufferers.