Govt, NGOs agree to combat rampant intravenous drug use
Debbie A. Lubis, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government, legislators, doctors, the police and non- governmental organizations have agreed to take comprehensive measures to curb rising intravenous drug use (IDU) among Indonesians, which is believed responsible for more than 70 percent of all HIV infections in the country.
They said a variety of intervention programs, an educational and information campaign, a social support system, law enforcement and access to treatment and life-saving drugs were viable strategies to address the problem.
Samsuridjal Djauzi, a member of the Working Group on AIDS at the University of Indonesia, said health services could help intravenous drug users (IDUs) receive information and treatment to overcome their addiction.
"They will be willing to take voluntarily counseling tests (VCTs) and medication if community health centers (Puskesmas) provide information about medicine that is affordable and effective," he said.
A pilot project run by the Pelita Ilmu Foundation in Kampung Bali district, Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, has found that in the past two years some 438 drugs addicts have came to community health centers for help. Most of them were unemployed people between the ages of 21 and 25.
Some 89 of 97 addicts who took VCTs were found to be HIV positive, and seven of these people died of AIDS-related diseases this year. Most of the 89 had been using drugs for four or five years and 77 percent of them shared syringes.
"We can save or maybe prolong their lives if we put in place effective and quick interventions. I admit that we denied three years ago that the prevalence of HIV among IDUs was high. Now we should start to say that we are in an emergency situation," Samsuridjal said.
In its latest report, the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said there were between 124,000 and 196,000 IDUs in Indonesia, of which some 43,000 were infected with HIV.
Usep Solehudin, manager of the Pelita Ilmu Foundation's community-based drug rehabilitation program, said that to promote harm reduction among IDUs the health workers taught them to bleach their syringes, to use oral drugs instead of intravenous drugs and to use condoms.
Samsuridjal said that giving job opportunities to recovering addicts would also help them stay away from drugs. So some addicts are given small-scale business training.
Wasilah Sutrisno, chairman of Jakarta Legislative Council's Commission E for health and education, said she would promote these programs among the 265 community health centers in Jakarta's subdistricts, and would propose funding in the provincial health budget for HIV/AIDS programs.
Achmad Sanusi Tambunan, deputy chairman of House of Representatives Commission VII for population and social welfare, said the House would draft articles outlining the punishment for security officers involved in the drug trade. The articles will be included in the amendments to laws No. 22/1997 and 5/1997 on narcotics and psychotropics.
"We will also include articles to control tobacco use because many young people move on to harder drugs after they start smoking," he said
Haikin Rachmat, director of communicable disease control at the Ministry of Health, said some funding for HIV/AIDS programs would be included in the ministry's budget next year, and each year some 100 poor people infected with the virus would receive subsidized life-saving drugs.