Bekasi to open HIV clinics

Wahyuana, The Jakarta Post, Bekasi

The Bekasi administration will open a free HIV/AIDS clinic at the Bekasi General Hospital and the private Ananda Hospital next month.

The clinic will provide a free voluntary consultancy test and counseling, head of the communicable diseases prevention unit at the Bekasi Health Agency, Krisna Dewayanti said.

"This program aims to anticipate the increasing number of Bekasi residents exposed to HIV," she told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

She said that based on data collected over the last six years, there are 89 Bekasi residents living with AIDS, another 131 who are HIV positive and 719 others at risk, mostly injected drug users (IDUs).

"Most of the cases are the result of using unsterilized needles or sharing needles among IDUs ... The counseling service is needed to disseminate information about the dangers of sharing needles, because few of them are aware of it," Krisna said.

Each clinic will get Rp 10 million per month for operational costs financed by the international non-governmental organization Global Fund.