Body Shop raises Aids awareness

Body Shop has collaborated with the Brunei Darussalam Aids Council at a shopping mall in Gadong to raise awareness of the disease.

People were encouraged to wear anything red to show their support for combating the epidemic. Zaslin Maidin, Body Shop Brunei’s marketing communications manager, said: ‘By educating the public we hope to promote long-term attitudinal and behavioural changes towards the disease.’

During last year’s World Aids Day commemoration in Brunei, Pehin Dato Paduka Hj Hazair Hj Abdullah, the acting health minister, emphasized that in 2007 alone seven individuals were infected with the virus and two deaths were caused by HIV and Aids. Between 1988, when Brunei introduced HIV surveillance, and 2007 a total of 37 locals have been reported with HIV and Aids. Of these, 19 have died.

The number is still relatively small compared with figures from other countries, but it has shown an increase in HIV and Aids infection in the sultanate within a year. Furthermore, 76 per cent of the infections were among people aged between 20 and 49.