Doctors support claim on high AIDS death rate

By Stevie Emilia

JAKARTA (JP): Two leading medical doctors supported yesterday the claim by a research agency from the University of Indonesia that between 12,000 and 31,000 people die in Indonesia each year from the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

Although there are no medical records to support the estimated number of deaths, Samsuridjal Djauzi and Kartono Mohamad, both active anti-AIDS campaigners, said ignorance has prevented the nation from realizing how deeply AIDS has penetrated the country.

The report published on Monday by the Center for Health Research, said that because of Indonesia's poor AIDS monitoring system, the number of people with AIDS is severely underreported, and a high proportion of AIDS-related deaths also go unrecorded.

The Ministry of Health was not available to comment on the report yesterday.

Samsuridjal told The Jakarta Post that in most cases, doctors were not at fault for failing to diagnose the presence of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which causes AIDS.

"Some people are simply reluctant to go to health services," said the medical adviser to the Pelita Ilmu Foundation on AIDS.

On a recent trip to Merauke, Irian Jaya, he found two sick people with HIV-positive symptoms. They had not gone to the nearest health center for a checkup. They simply stayed at home, he said.

"So we brought them to hospital and had them examined", and the initial tests confirmed his suspicions, he said.

Some HIV-positive people go overseas for their medical check- ups in an attempt to conceal their condition from people at home.

"It's understandable that the government can't detect every HIV-positive or AIDS case," said Samsuridjal, chairperson of the Medical Association for AIDS.

But doctors' ignorance is partly to blame, said Kartono, vice chairperson of the Indonesia AIDS Foundation.

It is possible that doctors are not recognizing AIDS symptoms as they often show up as symptoms of other diseases, such as tuberculosis, hepatitis or diarrhea.

"It's not because doctors are unable to diagnose the virus, but that the virus is very good in disguising its symptoms," said Kartono, former chairman of the Indonesian Medical Association.

Besides, it takes a long time to detect the virus from a blood test, "and not everyone has access to testing facilities," he said.

Many people who have died of AIDS may not have known they had contracted the virus, he said.

The Ministry of Health, which monitors the number of AIDS and HIV-positive cases, said that by September, a total of 449 people in Indonesia either had AIDS or were HIV-positive. Of these, 66 had died.

Government officials and international agencies have consistently maintained that the actual number of people who have AIDS or are HIV-positive are in the tens of thousands. But this is the first time anyone has attempted to estimate the number of AIDS-related deaths.

Samsuridjal said the report should "wake" those who have so far lightly dismissed the threat of AIDS.

"I'm very concerned about people who look at the figures of reported HIV-positive and AIDS related cases, and who do not realize the actual figures are far higher," Samsuridjal said.

The government must improve the current system of monitoring AIDS and HIV-positive cases, he said.

The information contained in the report should change the attitude of people who have considered the anti-AIDS campaign to be excessive and a waste money, he said.