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working towards their future, who can contribute to society. Effective medication hasenabled PLHIV a longer lease of life but the stigma on HIV prevents them from living itas others in the community.Several respondents related their negative experiences of some of the HIV/AIDSprogrammes or practices pertaining to HIV/AIDS. These include indiscriminatedisclosure of HIV diagnosis and status in prisons and drug rehabilitation centres whereHIV testing is routinely conducted, often without pre-test, and sometimes without posttestcounselling. Some of them were greatly traumatised and humiliated by suchunethical and insensitive practices. Coercion to have the HIV test done at work placeswas also revealed. In addition, many were visibly upset with the current practice in publichospitals that deny a dignified death for HIV-infected persons. This hospital practice,whereby HIV-infected persons who die in hospitals are cleaned up, if relevant, and sealedin body bags, does not allow close family members to be involved or perform proper lastrites. Furthermore, transporting the body in sealed body bags reveals the HIV status ofthe deceased to others in the community and reinforces the fear of contagion and,consequently, the stigma of HIV for the surviving family.When asked about the extent of participation in HIV policies and programmeimplementation, those who were more empowered and articulate (some drug users andMSM) were very keen for PLHIV to be directly involved in policymaking relevant to allHIV infected persons. Several of these participants were already actively involved withvarious HIV-related NGOs in outreach to hospitals, prisons, and drug rehabilitationcentres. Drug users, in particular, expressed the need to create support groups and “aftercare”post-rehabilitation programmes to ensure they could cope and be integrated back tosociety. Others voiced the need for self-help, vocational and income-generatingprogrammes to enable positive living for HIV infected persons. It is pertinent to note,however, that some of the respondents pointed out that HIV infected persons themselvesneed to, first, be confident of their own HIV status in order that they can step out to beinvolved and participate in HIV policymaking and programmes towards positive living.That is, PLHIV need to be more visible to facilitate society’s acceptance but, at the sametime, it is recognised that ensuing negative repercussions discourage them from doing so,hence, a chicken and egg dilemma. As such, efforts to protect PLHIV from the negativeeffects of disclosure, such as loss of employment, must be enforced. Avenues for suchprotection in critical areas, such as healthcare and workplace settings, are alreadyavailable in the form of the Patient’s Charter (MMA 1995) and the Code of Practice forthe Prevention and Management of HIV/AIDS in the Work-Place(MOH/DOSH/MAC/UNAIDS 2001). What remain lacking are implementation and/orenforcement.IMPACT ON THE COMMUNITYFrom the FGDs with communities, it was learnt that Malaysian society, both urban andrural, has heard of the terms “HIV” and “AIDS”. However, their knowledge oftransmission is flawed and arises from inaccurate media propagation. “Free sex”,“multiple sex partners”, sex with sex workers and abuse of drugs through the use ofinjections, all morally unacceptable by our standards to a large extent, influence howsociety feel about the ways the virus spreads. Attention to the presence of the virus inblood contributes to the fear of any contact with the blood and saliva of an infectedperson (through play, work or food/drink). Although the participants are aware that135