Education Minister: Nearly 1K M’sian Teenagers Tested Positive for STDs From 2018 to 2022

Sex education is important and shouldn’t be considered taboo because it’s not about having sex, but the consequences that follow if we don’t practice safe sex. 

Sadly, what the Education Minister had to tell us yesterday (October 30) in the Parliament was shocking. From 2018 until 2022, a total of 913 teenagers tested positive for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and some of them are as young as 13. According to the Education Minister, Fadhlina Sidek, she said the information was provided by the Ministry of Health, and the STDs include,

• syphilis
• gonorrhea
• cancroid
• HIV

For illustration purposes only

Some STDs are curable, and some are not, especially HIV, which, if not treated early, could lead to AIDS with more severe health complications. It’s heartbreaking to know there are people younger than us suffering from these diseases.

Here’s the number of cases that were recorded in the respective years, according to the date by MoH.

• 2018 (255 cases, 13-17 years old)
• 2019 (225 cases)
• 2020 (191 cases)
• 2021 (96 cases)
• 2022 (146 cases)

If you think that’s bad enough, Fadhlina revealed that in 2019, a small portion of the students who underwent urine tests also tested positive for drugs!

“In 2022, a total of 1.18% of students who underwent urine test were positive while as of September this year, a total of 0.64% tested positive.”

The urine tests were carried out by the MoH and the National Anti-Drug Agency (AADK).

No urine tests were conducted in 2020 due to the home-based learning during the Covid-19 pandemic.

On the other hand, based on the Student Discipline System (SSDM), Fadhlina said negative activities like bullying, truancy, smoking, obscene behavior, and mischief have shown a slight drop over the years.

These figures are nothing but a HUGE concern when it comes to what the youth are being exposed to with their peers and what they watch on the screen. 

Also read: Students in KL Visit Their Teacher at Her Grave After The End of SPM Papers To Thank Her