Blood donors 'should be told if they are HIV positive'

JAKARTA (JP): A legislator has called on the government to drop a policy which forbids the Red Cross to inform blood donors if they are infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

Nafsiah Mboi told a House of Representatives hearing with Minister of Health Sujudi Tuesday that donors should be told if they are HIV positive so they could make amends for their past sexual behavior and prevent their conditions getting worse or infecting others.

She said the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Coordinating Minister of People's Welfare's office had ruled that blood donors had a right to know if they were HIV positive.

Nafsiah was commenting on a blood donor in Jakarta who had died recently of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). She said the donor had been informed that he was infected after donating blood 33 times.

Despite the WHO rule, the Ministry of Health's policy of anonymity forbids the Red Cross to tell blood donors if they have tested positive for HIV.

Sujudi defended the policy, saying that without confidentiality many people would stop donating blood.

"If we let them know, people will consider that blood donations are HIV screening tests," Sujudi said.

He said the Red Cross did not use blood from HIV positive donors. But promised that the government would review the controversial policy.

In Ujungpandang yesterday, the wedding party of one of three HIV positive women turned sour after her husband's family refused to welcome the new couple home.

HIV awareness campaigner Zulkifli Amin told The Jakarta Post that the family refused to accept Syamsuddin and his wife Nuraeni because they had disgraced the family.

Nuraeni's family had earlier refused to let the couple into their home.

Nuraeni, Asni and Wiwiek, former prostitutes who are HIV positive, married over the weekend at the Mattorodeceng rehabilitation center.

The weddings have sparked controversy, with the Council of Ulemas local chairman Sanusi Baco saying that they should not marry because it would be disastrous if they had children. The three couples have vowed to remain childless. (39/31)