Government comes under on AIDS

Government comes under on AIDS

Dewi Santoso, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With HIV/AIDS emerging as an increasingly ominous threat, the
government appears to lack concrete plans to fight the virus,
non-governmental organization activists and a legislator have
said.

Indonesian AIDS Foundation (YAI) chairman Sarsanto W. Sarwono
said that thus far the government's commitment to combating AIDS
had consisted of nothing more than words.

As a consequence, he said, public awareness of the dangers of
the virus remained low.

"People still consider AIDS to be a personal problem. They
don't realize that the virus can infect almost everybody, whether
they are members of a high-risk group or not," he said.

Ministry of Health figures reveal that from 1987 to Sept. 30
this year, there were 3,924 people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA)
in Indonesia, of which 2,685 are HIV positive and 1,239 have
full-blown AIDS. A total of 428 people have died of the virus.

In a UNAIDS report, however, the estimated number of PLWHA in
Indonesia is given as 130,000.

"Within 10 years, these 130,000 PLWHAs will definitely get
full-blown AIDS and will need treatment. If no action is taken,
the number will just get bigger and bigger," Sarsanto told The
Jakarta Post.

Chris W. Green of the Spiritia Foundation said the government
appeared not to be prepared to accept the responsibility for
pursuing the fight against AIDS.

"There are 10 Voluntary Counseling Testing (VCT) centers in
the Greater Jakarta, plus at least one VCT in each provincial
capital. But the government hasn't been promoting these among the
public," said Green.

Sarsanto said that the absence of a dedicated government
campaign against the virus had led the public to believe that
HIV/AIDS was sexually-transmitted only.

"For the past two years, our survey shows that 44 percent of
PLWHAs were infected through the sharing of drug syringes. Before
this, the proportion was less than 10 percent," he said.

Another study conducted by the Aksi Stop AIDS group disclosed
that in Jakarta alone around one out of every two injectors was
infected with HIV and around 90 percent were sharing needles.

Deputy chairman of the House of Representatives Commission VII
for population and welfare affairs, Surya Chandra Surapatty,
joined the chorus of criticism, suggesting that the government
raise public awareness of HIV/AIDS to a higher level.

"The government's effort to promote the fight against the
virus has not been effective. It still considers AIDS to be a
moral issue, whereas the fact is that AIDS can infect anybody,
not only through sexual activities," said Surya.

The activists also said that religious institutions shared the
blame for the country's ineffective campaign against AIDS.

"We have introduced ABC (Abstinence, Be faithful, Condom)
programs. For the first and second programs, there was no
problem. But when it came to the third program, the religious
leaders opposed it, saying it was like promoting extramarital
sex," Sarsanto said.

He said these religious leaders perceived HIV/AIDS as a matter
of sinfulness.

"This is a totally wrong perception," he said, giving the
example of a housewife infected with HIV/AIDS by her husband.

"The wife never have extramarital sex. She was infected with
the virus, so were two of their children. What kind of sins have
she and her children committed?" he asked.

As part of the national commemoration of AIDS Day, President
Megawati Soekarnoputri is scheduled to deliver a short speech on
Dec. 5 and spell out the details of a government promise to
subsidize antiretroviral drugs so that the cost can be reduced
from Rp 650,000 (US$76.47) to Rp 450,000 for one month's supply.

Indonesia used to import the drugs from India, but this has
been stopped as an international agreement says that they drugs
can be produced by any country provided they are not exported.

The president director of pharmaceutical firm PT Kimia Farma,
Gunawan Pranoto, said his company, a licensed manufacturer of the
drugs, was still waiting for approval from the Indonesian Food
and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) to start producing the life-
saving drugs.