Abstinence advocacy not enough to prevent HIV - deputy minister

The Health Ministry has been urged to engage in preventative methods such as abstinence programmes to prevent the spread of HIV infections, instead of dispensing free pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) at public clinics.

However, Deputy Health Minister Lukanisman Awang Sauni said the ministry is already running abstinence programmes and has found them insufficient to bring down the number of HIV infections, especially among the youth.