High-risk behavior spurs RI's AIDS rate<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
As the globe commemorates World AIDS Day on Dec. 1,
\nIndonesia's response continues to remain dangerously slow while
\nmillions of its people continue to obliviously engage in high
\nrisk behavior.<\/p>\n
The United Nations' new report on AIDS also revealed that
\ninjecting drug use \"is the major driver\" of the spread of
\nHIV\/AIDS here. Meanwhile condom use remains low, despite various
\ncampaigns, even in the commercial sex trade, where \"it is
\nestimated that fewer than 10 percent of the between 7 million and
\n10 million Indonesian men who avail of the services of sex
\nworkers use condoms consistently,\" read the UNAIDS report,
\nreleased ahead of World AIDS Day.<\/p>\n
Haikin Rachmat, director of Communicable Diseases Control at
\nthe Ministry of Health, said Sunday that according to the
\nministry's behavior survey, \"80 percent of high risk groups know
\nabout the transmission mode of HIV but less than 10 percent of
\nthem use a condom.\"<\/p>\n
Experts have urged the need to scale up programs to overcome
\nHIV\/AIDS in a bid to check the potentially rapid spread of the
\nvirus, experts here say.<\/p>\n
Zubairi Djoerban, chairman of the Indonesian AIDS Society,
\nsaid a shortcut measure would be for all stakeholders \"to learn
\nsuccess stories from other institutions (in other countries) so
\nthat they can scale up existing programs without having to start
\nfrom scratch.\"<\/p>\n
The experts, along with Amaya Maw-Naing, medical officer at
\nWorld Health Organization's Representative Office for Indonesia,
\nagreed that government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs),
\npeople living with HIV\/AIDS (PLWHA), the private sector and
\ndonors needed to strengthen and integrate their efforts in
\ntackling the epidemic.<\/p>\n
Agence-France Presse on Sunday quoted epidemiologist Elizabeth
\nPisani as saying that Indonesia has one of the fastest growing
\nepidemics in the world today.<\/p>\n
Among female sex workers, she said the rate of HIV infection
\nis low compared to other Asian countries but is growing extremely
\nrapidly. The rate is eight percent in Riau, home to a red light
\ndistrict popular among some Singaporeans, and also eight percent
\nin Merauke in Papua province. Sorong, also in Papua, has the
\ncountry's highest level of infection at 16 percent according to
\ngovernment data, said Pisani of Aksi Stop AIDS, an AIDS
\nprevention and care group, a project of the above ministry and
\nUSAID.<\/p>\n
The figures were an increase from zero in the last three or
\nfour years, Pisani said.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Health recorded that from 1987 until Sept. 30
\nthis year, there were 3,924 PLWHA across the country. This figure
\ncomprises 2,685 HIV cases and 1,239 AIDS cases, while 428 of them
\nhave died. However, according to an official estimation from
\nUNAIDS, Indonesia is home to 130,000 PLWHA.<\/p>\n
From July to September this year, the ministry recorded 277
\nnew cases, most of them reported from Papua (105 HIV and 62
\nAIDS), East Java (33 AIDS), Yogyakarta (19 HIV and 5 AIDS), and
\nNorth Sumatra (2 HIV and 13 AIDS). About 66 AIDS cases are among
\nthe 20-29-year-old age group while 46 AIDS cases are in the 30-39
\nage bracket. Most of the transmission modes involve injecting
\ndrug use and sexual encounters.<\/p>\n
\"All partners need to strengthen their efforts. Prevention,
\ncare, treatment and support programs must go together. None is
\nover the other,\" said Maw-Naing.<\/p>\n
Zubairi pointed out that the country still lacked Voluntary,
\nCounseling and Test (VCT) services and only a few pregnant women
\nreceived information and treatment that could help them avoid
\ntransmitting HIV to their children.<\/p>\n
\"Currently, we only have 10 such centers in the country. We
\ncan learn from Africa which has more than 100 VCT centers, or
\nfrom America, which obliges gynecologists to inform pregnant
\nwomen about the risk of transmitting the virus to their babies.\"<\/p>\n
Zubairi said that teenagers, especially those who are sexually
\nactive, have not received adequate information about the
\nprevention of Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune
\nDeficiency Syndrome. There are only some schools in Greater
\nJakarta that pass on such information while the government has
\nyet to insert make any provision for it in school curricula.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/high-risk-behavior-spurs-ris-aids-rate-1447893297",
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