No Such Thing as Calm: A Policy Brief on Fishermen, HIV and Human Rights

Publications - Released in 2016

The overall objective of this study is to explore HIV and human rights issues faced by fishermen in Malaysia.

Fisherfolk have consistently fallen through the net of many HIV research initiatives, particularly after the first HIV cases discovered among the fishing communities in the Ugandan Rakai district in 1982. To date in Southeast Asia, there are still only a handful of scientifically rigorous,
peer-reviewed research initiatives targeting fishermen that is representative of their communities and gives an overall view of their vulnerability.

Recent data show that 3.8% of Malaysia’s reported HIV cases have occurred among fishermen (MOH 2009). A comparison of HIV cases between fisherfolk and general population in Malaysia indicates that HIV prevalence rate is 10 times higher than the general population. Though these figures focus only on HIV prevalence, but brings-in the issues of associated vulnerabilities that place this community at higher HIV risk than the general population.

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