60% of injecting drug users 'have HIV'

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The allegation that injecting drug users (IDUs) are prone to Human Imunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is proven here as the latest survey conducted by the city health agency showed that 60 percent of them were thus infected.

"The infection occurred as most of the drug users shared needles. Most of them took heroine or morphine," agency head A. Cholik Masulili said at City Hall.

Without stating the number of respondents, he said a survey was carried out last December of drug users in the city's five mayoralties, especially the "drug triangles".

The triangles are infamous for drug trafficking and junkies, and are Jl. Baturaja in Kebon Melati subdistrict, the Kampung Bali area and Jl. Jaksa in Kebon Sirih subdistrict -- all in Central Jakarta.

Kebon Melati and Kampung Bali are slum areas in Tanah Abang while Jl. Jaksa is popular with backpackers for its cheap hotels.

Cholik said that the respondents involved in the survey were drug users from nine years to 29 years of age.

"The child was an elementary school student who did not inject," he said, declining to mention the name of the school or the area where the respondent lived.

He said most of the drug users, aged from 20 to 24, were school dropouts and faced problems at home.

Separately, activist Baby Jim Aditya said that surveys carried out by nongovernmental organizations found that 60 percent to 80 percent of IDUs were infected with HIV.

"This is very saddening," Baby told The Jakarta Post.

According to her website, babyjimaditya.com, there were 114 new HIV cases in Jakarta from January through March this year. Eleven percent of them were infected through injecting.

It was reported that there were 213 HIV cases found in Jakarta from October through December last year, 19 percent of them IDUs.

Baby claimed the real number of HIV patients could be 100 times greater if the "iceberg analogy" were used.

Jakarta Health Agency revealed earlier that 22 percent of 200 prisoners who took HIV/AIDS tests at Salemba Penitentiary in Central Jakarta had tested positive.

Cholik said that besides practicing unsafe sex, many of the prisoners were drug users, who had become infected with HIV through injecting.

Deeply concerned at the seriousness of the drug issue here, about 1,000 Jakarta residents, including Muslim leaders, police, city officials, celebrities and students, launched an antidrug campaign at the National Monument park on Sunday.