Message by Chairman of Malaysian AIDS Foundation, Professor Dato’ Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

We have lived through three extraordinary years of the pandemic. What seemed like a never-ending nightmare is now easing, thanks to the miracle of science in particular the vaccines. Thanks also to modern science, the HIV pandemic, feared for decades, is no longer a death sentence. Effective HIV treatment means that a person living with HIV can essentially have a normal life span, and if viral suppression is achieved, he or she will not pass it on to their sexual partner or unborn child. A concept known as U=U, Undetectable=Untransmissible. Another advance is in prevention. A pill a day or PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) reduces the risk of acquiring HIV from sex by 99%. It is with these advances and other existing prevention measures, that it is now conceivable that end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.

Unfortunately, science alone will not bring an end to the COVID nor HIV pandemics. Politics too play a big role in public health response. Otherwise, the US, home to some of the greatest scientific minds and the world’s best medical and research institutions would not have one of the largest number of deaths due to COVID in the advanced world. A soon to be published modelling analysis from colleagues from University of California San Diego shows the indirect impact of politics on COVID outcomes. Vaccine disinformation and consequently rejection of the COVID 19 vaccine in Texas USA, more common amongst Republicans showed a 68% more chance of dying from COVID. So ladies and gentlemen – given that we’re in the middle of our election season, I must caution you to be careful who you vote for, it could be a matter of life and death.

Politics aside, one of the biggest lessons learnt from both HIV and COVID 19 is that we cannot overcome either disease without working together. In this, the Malaysian AIDS Foundation and our sister organization the Malaysian AIDS Council have long been fortunate to have the support of MOH, the Global Fund for AIDS, TB & Malaria  individuals and organisations including Yayasan Sime Darby, Berjaya Corporation, Yayasan Petronas, Karex Bhd and many more who believe in us and in the cause. We are now of course extremely grateful to have Tan Sri Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Cheah and Sunway Group joining them. Thank you, Tan Sri, not only for being tonight’s title sponsor but also for your commitment to support our colleagues in Sabah and Sarawak to deliver much needed HIV prevention and treatment services to those in rural areas with your generous donation of 4.1M for the MAF-Sunway Borneo Hope Project.

We are, in what I would like to think the final stretch to bring an end to AIDS as a public health threat in Malaysia. We have extremely effective prevention and treatment tools to do that. Together, these measures will ensure that we bring an end to AIDS. No small feat, but other countries less advanced and more ravaged by HIV are well on their way to achieving it – Botswana, Rwanda, Cambodia to name a few. How have they done it? With political will, strong collaboration between the health and scientific sectors and the community and of course financial investment. Can Malaysia replicate this? Of course we can. We have shown what we’re capable of with our COVID19 vaccine programme, it is now time to turn our attention once again to the HIV pandemic.

However, there is one big difference between dealing with HIV and COVID 19, in that realistically, Malaysia will need to address pervasive stigma and discrimination partly fueled by laws and policies that prevent those at risk from accessing prevention and care services. For example, laws and policies that continue to criminalise behaviours such as Akta 377 and numerous punitive drug laws that have done more harm than good.

Both HIV and SARS COV2 that caused the COVID 19 pandemic are what we call zoonosis when animal viruses jump species due to human encroachment into their natural habitats. The devastations caused by both these pandemics should remind us not just of our shared humanity but that we are sharing this earth, this planet with other species. Hence the clarion call for ESG and Planetary Health by the Sunway Group, BURSA Malaysia and others has not come soon enough. Ignore the perils of climate change and our very survival is at risk. With that, the Malaysian AIDS Foundation is proud to do our bit tonight by ensuring that this event, as glamorous as it is, adheres to the Sustainability guidelines. Every dish, every effort, has been made to meet the necessary requirements. It is our hope that this will be the gold standard by which other such events are held. Another key feature of the Red Ribbon Gala is that despite the glamour, we aim to keep cost to an absolute minimum, in this case 16% of earnings, so that your donation goes to where it is needed most. This has been made possible by the generosity of our partners and sponsors. Sunway Resort for providing F&B at cost, Dato Seri Jessie Lai for sponsoring Kris Dayanti and Malaysian Airlines for flying her across for us, the Red Ribbon Celebrity Supporters, Winnie K, Deborah Henry and Syed Dino our emcees, Pam and her amazing Gabung Cipta production team and of course the fabulous Razak Flora who ensures that the RRG holds up to its reputation as being one of the most glamorous events in the KL calendar since Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir our Patron first hosted it in 1996.

I reserve my final and heartfelt thanks to our Executive Director Jasmin Jalil and his small but amazing team – Razif, Azahemy, Abdullah, Goh, Ravi, Zarinah and the rest of the MAF secretariat who have been working day and night to bring you RRG 2022, and are also already hard at work planning RRG 2023 and 2024!

We hope we will continue to have your support to make RRG 2023 and 2024 a big success and be a part of Ending AIDS in Malaysia.