Hookers, johns aware but not afraid of AIDS

By Haryoso

SEMARANG (JP): "Hi... come and have fun with me," streetwalker Sulastri called to a man approaching her on a motorbike on Jl. Pemuda. "Come on, we can do it without a condom if you like."

The way the 17-year-old prostitute from Grobogan, Central Java, tried to attract her potential customer is typical among streetwalkers in the city: Going all the way without the safety latex.

The prostitutes, especially lower class ones, are well aware they are highly at risk from venereal diseases such as AIDS, syphilis and gonorrhea but very often they have no other choice but to submit to their customer's will.

They say very few customers will use condoms on the grounds that putting on the contraceptive kills their sexual appetite.

"I sleep with four men a day. I will offer them a condom but almost all of them refuse it saying that they don't feel good with it," says Sulastri. "I have to follow what they want because I need money."

The spread of venereal diseases has been greatly exacerbated by the worsening economic situation that has been throwing millions of families across the country into the jaws of poverty.

Sumarni, 20, and a mother of one, for example, has taken to the streets of Semarang to survive.

"I know what AIDS is but I think death and life are in the hands of God. What I do is making money and I don't care if my customer wears a condom or not," said the woman from Jepara, Central Java, who usually walks the downtown Simpang Lima streets.

Relating how difficult it is to make her customers use condoms, she said some men would threaten to pay her half the standard fare if they were forced to use the rubber.

"So it would be better to go ahead without a condom," she grinned.

Men who frequent brothels in the city are equally fatalistic about possible infection with AIDS and other venereal diseases.

"AIDS? No problem... As long as I am healthy and have enough intake of protein and other nutrients, my body will be able to repulse AIDS," said Suherman, 28, from Semarang, who claimed to go to bed with prostitutes three times a week.

"But if I do catch AIDS and have to die, I will accept it," he said, adding that he would carefully select the prostitutes he sleeps with.

The same argument came from Parjito, a 28-year-old civil servant who concedes to regularly having sex with prostitutes and easy-going housewives.

"I am aware of the AIDS danger but I don't care. Many women I date like doing it without condoms," he said.

Such people's attitudes have particularly worried health authorities in Semarang and Central Java.

According to the Central Java provincial health office chief Soejono, the number of people in Semarang known to have full- blown AIDS has reached six. Province-wide, the official figure is 25.

Three of the 25 people have died. They were two prostitutes and a man believed to have contracted the HIV from streetwalkers, he said.

Soejono said that most of the people with HIV/AIDS are female sex workers.

"We have to admit that it is only the tip of an iceberg and the actual figure could be a lot higher than those already detected," he said.

Farid Husni, chairman of the Central Java chapter of the Family Planning Association, also aired the same fear. He said few people, notably among sexually active age groups, had sound knowledge of AIDS.

"Even people who know about the menace do not care about protecting themselves from AIDS," he said.

He suggested that the local AIDS Commission gets aggressive in waging campaigns on AIDS prevention.

In a recent move taken in response to public demand, the Semarang mayoralty government closed down two major official brothels which housed thousands of women.

The move has sparked fear of spreading venereal diseases because the government did not provide substitute employment and women had to roam the streets without the medical care they used to receive when they were in the brothels.

At the national level, the central government began efforts to combat HIV/AIDS in 1964 under the coordination of the Coordinating Minister for People's welfare.

The first case was reported on the tourist island of Bali in 1987. Six years later, 137 HIV and 188 AIDS cases were reported in various provinces.

Since then, the figures have risen at a dramatic rate. In 1995, the government reported 277 HIV and 87 AIDS cases, in 1996 382 HIV and 119 AIDS cases, in 1997 466 HIV and 153 AIDS and as of October 1998 HIV 555 and AIDS 521.

Humaini AS, an AIDS campaigner in Semarang, says that the actual number of people walking around with HIV could be 100 times as many as the official statistics claim.

He estimates that the actual number of HIV/AIDS cases in Indonesia could be as high as 200,000 with many showing signs of infection in five to 10 years to come.

Taufik Adisusilo, a sexologist at Diponegoro University, proposed that sex education be introduced at school to provide students with knowledge about sexuality.

"Youngsters should be the main target of AIDS information campaigns," he said.

He pointed out that morality alone would not curb the spread of HIV.

He also suggested that tests for HIV be conducted on a larger scale to obtain a more objective picture of the extent of the problem and proper measures to take in dealing with it.