AIDS threatens truck drivers

YOGYAKARTA: About 78 percent of the estimated 20,000 truck drivers working the Jakarta-Surabaya route visit brothels, making them highly vulnerable to the deadly AIDS, a survey has found.

The results of the recent survey jointly conducted by Unicef and the Atmajaya Catholic University were presented yesterday at a seminar at Gadjah Mada University.

Unicef representative to Indonesia Stephen J. Woodhouse said that if AIDS was prevalent among the drivers, the consequences would be horrific.

Woodhouse said few Indonesians were aware that they, too, could catch the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) that causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Not many Indonesians have access to information on the disease, he said.

They think that AIDS exclusively affects sex workers and foreigners, according to Woodhouse.

Official figures show that Indonesia has 466 HIV/AIDS cases.

Abdul Manaf, a senior official from the directorate general for the control of communicable diseases, said 90 percent of people with HIV/AIDS aged between 15 and 49 years. (har/pan)