Blood testing urged for Indonesian athletes

Blood testing urged for Indonesian athletes

JAKARTA (JP): All Indonesian athletes who don the national
colors next week for the 18th Southeast Asian Games in Chiang
Mai, Thailand, should be tested for HIV infection on their return
home, an academic said yesterday.

Dadang Hawari, a senior lecturer of the Faculty of Medicine of
the University Indonesia in Jakarta suggested that the national
sportsmen and women undergo one blood test for HIV upon arrival
and another test 60 days later.

"The tests are just a measure of alertness because of the high
prevalence of AIDS in Chiang Mai," Dadang said.

Dadang was commenting on the decision of the SEA Games
Organizing Committee to provide condoms for male athletes taking
part in the 10-day regional sports competition.

A senior official of the National Sports Council, Mohammad
Sarengat, said earlier that almost 70 percent of prostitutes in
Chiang Mai were HIV-positive.

Dadang said the second test was necessary because it can take
the body up to 60 days to develop anti-bodies to the virus,
enabling infection to be detected.

"Condoms do not protect a man from the deadly virus 100
percent," Dadang said, as quoted by Antara. "The sexual devices
only reduce the risk of being infected with HIV," he added.

Dadang quoted a survey conducted by the World Health
Organization as showing that condoms are only between 70 percent
and 74 percent effective in protecting the user from HIV
infection.

The Ministry of Health revealed on AIDS Day last week that, as
of September, a total of 346 people in Indonesia have been
infected with HIV, 82 of them having already contracted AIDS.

In the world of sports, there have been only three cases of
the virus so far: basketball legend Ervin 'Magic' Johnson,
Olympic diving gold medalist Greg Louganis and tennis great
Arthur Ashe. Ashe died as a result of AIDS in February 1993.
(amd)