Experts say 12,000 die yearly of AIDS

JAKARTA (JP): A research group from the University of Indonesia predicted yesterday that between 12,000 and 31,000 people are already dying in Indonesia every year due to the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

The estimate, published in a report by the Center for Health Research, contrasts sharply with the official statistics on AIDS and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

The Ministry of Health said that up to September, 449 people either had AIDS or were HIV-positive, 66 of them had died.

Director of the Center for Health Research Meiwita B. Iskandar, said the government only gives figures for reported cases.

The real figures are far higher because Indonesia does not have an effective system for monitoring the real number of HIV and AIDS cases, Meiwita said.

Government and international organizations have said the number of people who have AIDS or were HIV-positive in Indonesia was in the tens of thousands, but this is the first time anyone has specifically reported death rates.

"There has been a low number of reported HIV-positive cases because they are detected after they develop into AIDS," Meiwita said.

"A surveillance system should detect it earlier," she said at the Office of the Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare.

The report, Analysis of the HIV/AIDS Situation and Its Impact on Children, Women and Family in Indonesia, was published by the University of Indonesia in cooperation with the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef). Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare's third assistant Suyono Yahya, and Unicef representative Stephen J. Woodhouse were present at the launch of the report.

An even bigger concern than the HIV-related deaths is the fact that by 2000, between 200,000 and 550,000 children will lose their parents, Meiwita said.

Unfortunately, she said, it is the children, who will suffer both physically and psychologically because of the syndrome.

Even children born before their parents contract the virus are not immune from the impact, she said.

It is likely they will get inadequate nutrition, be forced to leave their schools, be isolated and even ridiculed by the community, and have to assume some parental responsibility, she said.

"These orphans are not likely to grow up with a normal family life and there is a possibility that they will become sexually active much earlier, and contract sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV," Meiwita said.

The children, she said, need support from their families, society and also the government.

Unfortunately, little attention has been given to women or children who are vulnerable to the syndrome, she said.

She called for better coordination between policy makers and the people who implement AIDS awareness policies.

She called for cooperation between government agencies and non-governmental organizations, the private sector, educational and religious institutions, to support the planning, funding, and activities of the anti-AIDS campaign.

"HIV/AIDS is not a momentary crisis, something that can be managed by immediate intervention. It requires long-term intervention .. like the way the country managed the Family Planning program," Meiwita said. (ste)