Govt to start up special AIDS hospital this year

JAKARTA (JP): The government plans to establish a hospital for patients of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) this year.

The government has appointed Koja general hospital in North Jakarta to specialize in treating AIDS patients, said Suyuno Yahya, an aide to Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Azwar Anas.

"The hospital is expected to lead other hospitals in the country in treating AIDS patients," Yahya said on Tuesday.

He was briefing reporters after a limited cabinet meeting attended by ministers under the charge of Azwar Anas.

The Koja hospital was originally set up to specialize in treating highly communicable disease such as cholera and smallpox. But since Indonesia had been able to contain these various epidemics, the hospital was turned into a general hospital.

The government now plans to restore Koja into its original function but specially to treat AIDS patients, Yahya said.

Its facilities will be upgraded accordingly, he added.

He added, however, that the hospital was not intended to become a quarantine for people who have the disease.

The decision was taken because of the rapid increase in the number of people in Indonesia who have acquired the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which causes AIDS.

According to Yahya, the number of people who tested positive for HIV has jumped from 216 in June to 262 in July.

Government officials and foreign experts believe that the actual number could be 200 times more than the reported figure.

President Soeharto early this year set up a national commission to prevent the spread of AIDS. Next month, the government plans hold a meeting bringing officials from all 27 provinces to discuss strategy of containing the spread of AIDS. (emb)