'I wouldn't isolate people with HIV'

World AIDS Day was commemorated on Wednesday with activists calling for the need to protect women and girls, who are often sidelined in the fight against the disease. With estimates of between 90,000 and 130,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in Indonesia, The Jakarta Post asked residents what they thought about people with the virus.

Bayu, 29, works as a television producer in a production house in South Jakarta. He lives with his wife in Kemanggisan, West Jakarta:

I have a relative who is HIV positive. He was infected because he was an injecting drug user. Now, most of the time he stays home. I don't know why but maybe he's afraid about how people will react toward him.

Some members of my extended family still talk about him behind his back, mocking and judging him.

As for myself, since I was married a year ago I stopped my "wild lifestyle" and I've remained faithful to my wife. I hope my current lifestyle does not expose me to HIV.

Yennie Chandra, 26, owns an electronic store at the HWI Lindeteves electronic market in Glodok, West Jakarta. She lives in Bojong, West Jakarta, with her mother and brother:

Of course I would be sad if a member of my family was infected from HIV/AIDS but I would not let that sorrow consume me. I would take the person to the best doctor I could find.

I know that HIV/AIDS is not curable, but by taking care of them and giving them the best treatment I could prolong their lives.

I don't think I'd feel afraid of being infected with the virus as I have read enough from newspapers, the internet and heard enough from radio and televisions that HIV/AIDS is contractible through blood to blood contact only.

I wouldn't isolate the person. Instead, I would give them my support because if the person could choose, they wouldn't want to have HIV.

-- The Jakarta Post