Australia, RI sign anti-AIDS project

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia and Australia signed a memorandum of understanding yesterday in relation to a A$20.2 million (US$15.3 million) AIDS-prevention and care project.

The memorandum, which also covers other sexually-transmitted diseases, was signed by Australian Ambassador Allan Taylor and Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Azwar Anas in Jakarta.

Under the memorandum, the project will be financed by contributions of A$17.8 million and A$2.4 million from the Australian and Indonesian governments respectively.

Taylor said the project would support efforts to deal with the disease in the provinces of Bali, East Nusa Tenggara and South Sulawesi, as well as assisting the National Commission for the Prevention of AIDS in Jakarta.

As of last month, the government had recorded a total of 346 cases of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in 15 of Indonesia's 27 provinces.

Of the total, 82 have been full-blown AIDS sufferers, 50 of whom have already died.

Some experts estimate that the real number of people with HIV in Indonesia is more than 200 times the official figure.

Azwar said Australia had been effective in combating the virus.

"We decided to work with Australia because its government has considerable experience, as one of a few countries which have successfully slowed the annual rate of new infections," he said.

Azwar, who chairs the national AIDS commission, said he hoped the projects in the three provinces would become good models for the anti-AIDS campaign across the country.

He added that an international meeting on AIDS in Yokohama, Japan, last August had viewed Indonesia as "vulnerable" to the spread of the virus.

Experts have predicted that, unless steps are taken to stop the spread of the disease, 2.5 million people in Indonesia will be infected with HIV in the year 2000, Anwar said. The annual cost of treating those people will be US$16 billion, he added. (31)