619 infected with HIV: Official

619 infected with HIV: Official

JAKARTA (JP): The number of HIV/AIDS-infected people in
Indonesia increased by 17 last month to 619, an official said.

The health ministry's director general for contagious diseases
control, Hadi M. Abednego, said that of the 17 cases reported, 12
were found in Riau, two in Jakarta, two in Bali and the last in
East Java.

Carriers of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired
Immune Deficiency Syndrome have been recorded in 22 provinces
across the nation. Jakarta has the highest number with 181
carriers followed by Irian Jaya with 155 and Riau with 69, he
said.

Of the 619 infected people, 466 have been declared HIV
positive while of the remaining 153 diagnosed with full-blown
AIDS 84 have already died.

Most of those infected are men, with 393 reported cases.

Abednego said 421 were infected through unsafe heterosexual
sex while 94 were infected through homosexual relationships.

Among the carriers were four infants who reportedly contracted
the virus from their HIV-positive mothers.

Abednego admitted that the real figures could be 100 times
greater than the current statistics.

"The government had stepped up its campaign against the spread
of HIV/AIDS by a strategy of communication, information and
education on family resistance, social issues, culture, religion
and health, without discriminating the infected people," Antara
quoted Abednego as saying on Friday. (09)