Aids claims fifty lives here

JAKARTA (JP): Coordinating Minister for Social Welfare Azwar Anas said over the weekend that 50 people have died of AIDS in Indonesia and 77 others are registered as suffering from the deadly disease.

There are 316 HIV infected people scattered over 15 provinces, he said.

"However," the minister continued, "the registered cases are only a small sample of the real figure."

In a speech read by his assistant Fahmi Saefuddin at a seminar on a doctor's role in preventing the spread of HIV and AIDS, Azwar said the World Health Organization believes that for every registered HIV positive person, there are 200 undetected cases. For every registered AIDS case there are 1,000 undetected cases.

He said that about 150 people test HIV positive everyday in the world.

The minister says if Indonesians don't take the problem seriously, there will be 300,000 HIV cases and 2.5 million AIDS cases by 2000.

If the estimation is correct, he maintained, Indonesia will need Rp 32 trillion (US$15 billion) by 2000 to fight against AIDS.

"This is 40 percent of the current annual budget," Azwar said.

He revealed that studies have shown that infection occurs through sexual relations.

Such huge expenditures will surely affect the national anti- poverty campaign, he asserted. (tis)

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