HIV risk highest among drug users

HIV risk highest among drug users

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

When police caught her daughter sharing a syringe with five
school mates in a drug bust eight years ago, Gita, 53, not her
real name, did not realize that her daughter was at risk of
contracting the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

However, over the years, as her daughter, who is now 24,
continued to relapse into the habit, Gita eventually became aware
of the link between drugs and the virus that causes Acquired
Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

"When she told me that she had HIV three years ago, I was not
shocked at all," Gita recounted. "I was already prepared for that
news."

Currently about 80 percent of new HIV infections in Indonesia
are injecting drug users (IDUs), while the rest contracted the
virus through unsafe sex, according to a local AIDS expert.

"Six years ago it used to be the other way around," said
Zubairi Djoerban, who is the executive director of the joint AIDS
working group of the University of Indonesia's School of Medicine
at the Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital.

The latest World Health Organization (WHO) report on HIV in
Indonesia shows that transmission among IDUs has increased eight-
fold since 1998.

Nationally, between 19 percent and 34 percent of IDUs have
HIV, while the rate for sex workers ranges from 2 percent to 5
percent and the rate among homosexuals is estimated at between
0.4 percent and 1.3 percent, according to the WHO profile.

The profile estimated that there were up to 450,000 people
living with HIV in Indonesia, although the official estimate
stands between 90,000 and 130,000 people. Activists set the
number at one million.

Zubairi said that HIV transmission through sharing of needles
mostly affected youths aged between 16 and 25 years old.

"It makes me sad, because they are all very young and seem to
be physically fit", said Zubairi, who treats 15 people with HIV
daily.

He said that a well-coordinated and effective harm-reduction
strategy, including provision of sterile disposable needles and
drug substitutes such as methadone, was needed to contain the HIV
epidemic.

"It's impossible for drug addicts to stop their activities
instantly. We need to rehabilitate them gradually and in the
meantime allow them to use sterile needles," he said.

Gita agreed, saying that distributing sterile needles to
rehabilitating drug users could have prevented her daughter from
contracting HIV.

"I know from my daughter's experience how hard it is to
eliminate drug addiction," said Gita, whose daughter has been
clean for over a year. "Every day is a struggle for her."