Asian Journal of Humanities and Social Studies (ISSN: 2321 - 2799) Volume 01– Issue 05, December 2013 Asian Online Journals (www.ajouronline.com ) 274 HIV/AIDS Epidemic in Malaysia: Vulnerability and Risk of Women Md. Nazrul Islam Mondal 1, 3 , Mahendran Shitan 1, 2 1 Laboratory of Computational Statistics and Operations Research Institute for Mathematical Research University Putra Malaysia 43400 UPM Serdang Selangor; Darul Ehsan, Malaysia 2 Department of Mathematics Faculty of Science University Putra Malaysia 43400 UPM Serdang Selangor; Darul Ehsan, Malaysia 3 Department of Population Science and Human Resource Development University of Rajshahi Rajshahi- 6205, Bangladesh ABSTRACT— Malaysia is no exception to the growing trend and severity in Human immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) cases where women are more vulnerable than men. Consequently, the incidence of HIV infections in females is steadily increasing. This study aimed to explore the HIV vulnerability of women and the inequity of HIV infections between males and females in Malaysia over time. Data and necessary information were obtained from the Ministry of Health, Malaysia. The analyses were done by polynomial curve fitting and discriminant function analysis. The fifth degree polynomials were found as useful fitting models for all the cases and almost all the curves explained more than 95% of the variation. The discriminant function analysis identified the discrimination among males and females HIV/AIDS prevalence and AIDS deaths. The current study identified the discrimination between males and females HIV and AIDS prevalence, and AIDS deaths over time and HIV infections among women are gradually rising. The findings suggested that the policies should be aimed at to reduce the major risk factors of HIV transmission, including injecting drug use, needle sharing, and unprotected sex. Keywords- HIV, AIDS, risk factors, women in Malaysia, discriminant function analysis 1. INTRODUCTION Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a growing health problem both domestically and globally. The early cases of HIV/AIDS were reported in the USA in 1981. Since then, it has been steadily increasing and there are approximately 34 million people currently infected with HIV. Almost 30 million people have died of AIDS-related causes since the beginning of the epidemic. While the HIV cases have been reported all over the world, 97.00% of the infected persons reside in the low- and middle-income countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa [1]. Most people living with HIV or at risk of HIV do not have access to prevention, care or treatment, and update there is still no complete cure [2]. HIV primarily affects those in their most productive years (20-29 years); about half of new infections are among those under the age 25 years [1]. HIV not only affects the health of individuals, it impacts households, communities, and the development and economic growth of nations. New global efforts have been mounted to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic, particularly in the last decade. Malaysia is a culturally diverse country with a population of 28 million and one of the fastest growing economies in Southeast Asia. However, Malaysia is facing an alarming increase in HIV/AIDS cases [3]. The first case of AIDS in Malaysia was reported in late 1986 [4] and since then the number of HIV infected individuals have increased. The World Health Organization identified Malaysia as a country with concentrated HIV epidemic [5]. This classification is based on the fact the infection rates are greater than 5.00% among the most-at-risk for populations. HIV/AIDS cases are most prevalent amongst injecting drug users (IDUs), sex workers (SWs), men who sex with men (MSM), and transgender (TG) population [6]. The states such as Sabah and Sarawak, located in East Malaysia, have reported 97.70%