HIV/AIDS cases in Papua reach alarming level

HIV/AIDS cases in Papua reach alarming level

Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura, Papua

Compared to Papua province's population of 2.1 million, the
prevalence of HIV/AIDS cases in the province has reached an
alarming level with a total of 1,263 people with HIV, including
539 who have contracted the fatal disease.

Chairman of the Commission for Handling of AIDS (KPA) in the
province, Constan Karma, expressed his deep concern over the
HIV/AIDS cases in the province that almost constitutes 50 percent
of the national figure.

"The number of HIV/AIDS cases nationwide is 3,782, with 1,263
cases in Papua," he said here on Monday.

He said the HIV/AIDS cases was an iceberg phenomenon,
indicating that "we will likely find one case among 100 people,
and if no action is taken, we fear the number of people with
HIV/AIDS will reach 126,000 in the next decade."

Constan, also the province's deputy governor, said that the
HIV prevalence is alarming because there are 24.13 HIV/AIDS cases
for every 100,000 people.

"At the national level, only 0.6 cases are found for every
100,000 people," he said, citing the country's population at
206.2 million.

Of the 1,263 cases, 527 are found in Merauke regency, 308 in
Timika regency and 149 in Sorong regency.

Constan said the virus was transferred via unprotected sex,
and those with HIV/AIDS were between the ages of 20 and 39.

Local health officer Bagus Sukaswara said the fatal disease,
which was detected for the first time ten years ago in Merauke,
has claimed 350 lives, averaging 35 deaths annually.

He said the disease was first brought to the province by Thai
fishermen and spread through sex workers easily found in coastal
transmigrant resettlement areas in Merauke.

KPA Chairman Farid W. Hussain blamed the sexual behavior among
adults and sharing needles among drug abusers on the rapid spread
of HIV/AIDS in the country.

Besides launching a safe sex campaign, the government should
strictly enforce the law to minimize the spread of HIV/AIDS, he
said.

Family Health International Director Steven Wignall called on
the Indonesian people to avoid casual unprotected sex and to use
condoms when having sex with different partners.

Constan also called upon religious and tribal leaders to
persuade locals to avoid casual sex to minimize the number of
HIV/AIDS cases in the future.

"In addition, the government is preparing a bylaw requiring
the use of condoms in red-light districts in the province," he
said.

At the end of March, there were 2,556 cases of HIV and 1,086
cases of AIDS in Indonesia. However, the figures might not be a
true indication of the actual amount of patients as many cases go
unreported. Some estimates suggest that there were 90,000 to
130,000 people who are HIV-positive in 2002.

The director general of Communicable Disease Control, Haikin
Rachmat, said recently that new infections had almost doubled
over the past two years.

Unprotected sex accounts for 73 percent of all cases of HIV in
Indonesia, followed by sharing needles at 24 percent.

The latest report on the AIDS epidemic from the Joint United
Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said injecting drugs was a
growing phenomenon in urban areas in Indonesia because of recent
social and economic upheavals.