HIV is one of the most deathly infections which cause death throughout the world.
Approximately one million two hundred thousand people are infected with HIV and around one out of eight (12.8%) are unaware of their infection in the States (CDC, 2015, HIV in the United States: At a glance, pg.1) while eighty-eight thousand over people are living with the infection in Malaysia alone (HIV/STI Disease Control Division, Ministry of Health Malaysia, 2014, Global Aids and Respond Progress Report Malaysia 2015, pg.3). In the year 2008, Malaysian government was expressing their plans to enforce a compulsory prerequisite HIV screening on all couples as the rates of young Muslims infected by the virus is increasing. But on the other hand, experts on HIV/AIDS argued that this policy not only violates civil rights, it also does not prevent the transmission of the virus from continuing. So does such a policy need to be enforced in Malaysia? HIV, stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus is a virus that attacks the body’s immune system. If this virus is left untreated, it can lead to the disease called AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome).
A virus like this is considered very dangerous in mankind as this virus cannot be healed completely by the human body. Once a person is infected with it, he or she is going to be infected with it for the rest of their life. HIV can be spread through body fluids from a person to another person, and is mainly spread by having sexual intercourse or sharing an injection with someone who is infected by it. So when it comes to sexual intercourse, a couple is in a position whereby the chances to be infected are at risk if by chance one of the couple is infected. Many would say that the HIV screening test is a must to be safe while others think it is a sign of distrust between a couple or an embarrassing matter.
If a couple were to carry out a screening test on HIV, they would not only be able to prevent it from spreading, they are also able to control it by going for a treatment to prevent or slow down the process of the virus from worsening. But then again, going for a HIV test would also have a lot of negative impact on some of the individual’s feelings. There are a variety of agreement and disagreement on the issue of carrying out a HIV test for a couple, some of those are, provides protection for the couple and prevent the spreading of HIV, but the premarital screening or HIV test do very much violates the individual right of a person
