Families generally reject AIDS-infected member

Families generally reject AIDS-infected member

JAKARTA (JP): AIDS patients need proper care and support from
their families to lighten their burden, says Dr. Arman Adikusomo,
a psychiatrist who treats the AIDS-infected.

Dr. Adikusumo, from the AIDS Study Group at the University of
Indonesia's Medical School, told a symposium Saturday that not
all people would accept a member of their family who had AIDS,
especially if the patient was homosexual.

"There was a mother who could not say: 'Son, I love you' until
he died," Adikusumo said.

He said one of his AIDS patients, secluded by his family, was
alone when he passed away. He was one of Adikusumo's two patients
who have died.

People infected by HIV (Human Immuno-deficiency Virus), the
virus that causes AIDS, are in bad need of support from friends
and families to share their grief and suffering, especially since
a cure for the disease is still a dream, he said.

According to government statistics, as of Oct. 30, there were
258 people from 15 provinces in Indonesia that had tested HIV
positive.

Jakarta tops the list with 87 people, of which 37 have full-
blown AIDS, according to Zubairi Djoerban, moderator of the
symposium.

Irian Jaya is second with 64 HIV carriers, including two who
have full-blown AIDS. In Bali, 11 people are suffering from AIDS
while 20 others are carriers of the virus. Five people in East
Java have come down with AIDS and 19 others are known to have the
HIV virus.

Saturday's symposium was held in conjunction with the World
AIDS Day, which falls on Dec.1, and the 75th anniversary of Cipto
Mangunkusumo Public Hospital (RSCM).

Other speakers were H. Soemarsono and Fatma Asyari from RSCM
and Achmad Juwono from Dr. Soetomo Public Hospital in Surabaya.

Soemarsono said that the first person in Jakarta infected by
HIV was detected in 1985 when the man, a worker, had his health
checked at RSCM before leaving for Saudi Arabia. In the same
year, the first AIDS case in Jakarta was found in a Dutch man. He
said that as of Oct. 31, the hospital had treated 42 AIDS-
infected people, of whom five were women.

Education

Among the patients were a parking attendant, a cleaning
service person and a steward. Their education ranged from
elementary to university levels, he said.

Twenty four of them had died.

Soemarsono said that 38 of them got the virus from sexual
contact. The rest, including a child, were infected by the virus
through blood transfusions and one from intravenous drug use.

Juwono said that since 1989, Dr. Soetomo's hospital had
treated three patients who had full-blown AIDS and seven others
with HIV.

Out of the seven HIV carriers who had received medical
treatment at Dr. Soetomo hospital, six were prostitutes and one
was a cross-dresser, Juwono said, most of whom have now returned
to their villages.

One of them delivered a baby in Malang last month while
another in Bojonegoro, East Java is expecting a child.

Juwono said that in the first months after they were tested
HIV positive, the sex workers returned to Dr. Soetomo's hospital
for medical check-ups and counseling.

"But they later stopped coming because they did not have
enough money," Juwono said. "Two of them have disappeared."

"I am not sure whether it is worth spending so much time and
money to monitor them all the time. It is impossible," Juwono
said.(sim)