JP/5/AIDS

JP/5/AIDS

HIV/AIDS cases continue to soar in Papua

Nethy Dharma Somba
The Jakarta Post
Jayapura, Papua

The number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Papua province now
reaches 1,398 and has sparked concern among Papuans and local
health officials. Of the total, 912 people have been diagnosed
HIV-positive and 486 have developed AIDS.

The disease has killed 172 people in Papua since it was first
detected in the province in 1992, according to data obtained from
Papua Administration health office.

Executive Director John Rahail of the Indonesian Planned
Parenthood Association (PKBI) in Papua said on Monday that the
number of people who had contracted the deadly disease could be
much higher and that the current figure may only be the tip of
the iceberg.

He estimated that the actual number of people with HIV/AIDS
could be 10 times the current figure.

He said if the estimated figure -- 1/17 of the 2.4 million-
strong Papuan population -- was correct, it meant that Papua was
overrun by the disease.

Rahail said the virus had spread evenly across almost all
areas in the province, including remote areas.

A recent survey conducted by the Papua health office
discovered that, in the Waris area on the border of Indonesia and
Papua New Guinea, three out of the 383 people surveyed had
contracted the disease.

In Puncak Jaya regency, provincial health officials recorded
one HIV-positive case; in Jayawijaya regency, eight were HIV-
positive, while in Nabire regency, 14 people had contracted HIV
and 44 had developed AIDS.

Merauke regency has the greatest number of HIV/AIDS cases at
561, followed by Timika regency with 514 cases and Jayapura
regency with 101 cases.

Rahail said the spread of HIV/AIDS in remote areas was mostly
caused by the negative habits of native villagers. For example,
some individuals went to towns and procured the services of sex
workers, after which they returned to their home villages and
passed on HIV/AIDS to their partners.

Rahail added that economic hardships and urbanization had
contributed to the alarming number of people infected with the
deadly disease, as more and more rural women were traveling to
urban areas due to a lack of jobs at home and became sex workers.

Data provided by Mother's Hope Foundation supported this
trend, finding that 90 percent of 284 sex workers surveyed
recently in Jayapura, the capital of Papua, were native Papuans.

Another contributing factor to the high number of people
infected with the lethal disease was the lack of public awareness
and knowledge on HIV/AIDS. Gunawan Ongkokusumo from the AIDS Stop
Action-Family Health International asserted that local residents
were generally active with multiple partners, but rarely used
condoms and contributed to the rapid spread of sexually
transmitted diseases.