HIV/AIDS misinformation

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