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)