HIV/AIDS misinformation

I read your article Indonesia faces danger of AIDS crises (The Jakarta Post, July 5, 2002) with growing irritation. It is good that the Post publishes articles on HIV/AIDS but please be a bit more critical about what you write on the front page of your paper.

Zubairi Djoerban (a member of a study group on HIV/AIDS) is quoted as saying that, "30 percent of some four million drug users in Jakarta were infected with HIV". Should I really believe that there are four million drug users in Jakarta? Assuming Jakarta has 12 million inhabitants, this means that one in every three people are drug users. Should I really believe that 1.2 million Jakartans are HIV infected (one in every ten people?). I agree that drug abuse and HIV are serious problems but I reject Zubairi's statement as outrageous and misleading.

Your journalist writes that the statement of Zubairi is confirmed by a United Nations' report. This is a wrong conclusion and another form of misinformation. The quoted UN report only confirms that HIV infection among drug users is on the rise and by no means supports Zubairi's statement.

In the same article, the Ministry of Health is quoted as saying there are, "120,000 people with HIV/AIDS in the country". This massively contradicts Zubairi's estimate of 1.2 million in Jakarta alone.

The study group on HIV/AIDS said that 30 people per month (in the whole country) were being infected with HIV/AIDS. That is about 360 people per year. This is 360 too many, but again it contradicts the statement issued by Zubairi.

Of course your journalist can hide behind, "I am just quoting what the sources/people said". This is, however, a poor excuse. We might expect some critical journalism from a respected newspaper and not only simply copying outrageous, nonsensensical statements and penning down contradictory figures without any comment or reflection. HIV/AIDS and drug abuse are serious problems. Let us report seriously on it.

FRANS VAN DIJK

Jakarta