June 8, 2022

We refer to the articles published in Straits Times online, Today online (response letter) and Channel News Asia published on 7 June 2022. These articles reported that an HIV positive man was sentenced to a year’s jail for non-disclosure of his HIV status to two sexual partners. The articles mentions that the individual who was diagnosed in 2017, had been on treatment and had an undetectable viral load during his six-monthly check-ups throughout the period from November 2017 to January 2022.

Action for AIDS (AfA Singapore) is disturbed by this case in light of current medical evidence on transmission of the virus.

We would like to highlight that it has been scientifically proven in several large clinical studies that people living with HIV who are optimally treated with anti-retroviral medications and have suppressed viral loads in their bloodstream cannot transmit the HIV virus to their sexual partners. This has been confirmed and endorsed by the WHO, international experts, and other scientific organisations.

It is therefore timely to review the law requiring notification of positive HIV status prior to sexual relations where persons with HIV have been regular with follow-up consultations and faithful in their adherence to medications. Persons living with HIV are still heavily stigmatized in society and the publicity which these cases bring make things worse for them. It also undoes the work that AfA and other organisations have been doing to reduce HIV-related stigma and discrimination and reduces the effectiveness of the HIV control programme.

We therefore call upon the Ministry of Health to review the relevant parts of the Infectious Diseases Act. Law reform is necessary to bring our legislation in concordance with current scientific evidence and biomedical advances.

Prof Roy Chan,
President, AfA Singapore

Ms Sumita Banerjee,
Executive Director, AfA Singapore