Learn Cuban way to address HIV/AIDS problem: experts
Debbie A. Lubis The Jakarta Post Jakarta
Early prevention, effective public campaigns and access to life saving drugs make big difference in dealing with the spread of HIV/AIDS. And in Cuba, it works.
HIV prevalence in Cuba is reportedly 17 times lower than the average of the rest of Latin America, where one of every 200 adults is infected. Cuba has 3874 HIV-positive people and 1667 people living with AIDS from 1986 until 2001.
According to Cuban Institute of Tropical Diseases deputy director Jorge Perez, early prevention had contributed most to his country's success in preventing a more serious epidemic.
Cuba set up a national commission to identify the epidemic- related symptoms and signs in 1993.
"As soon as we knew it could be transmitted through blood, blood products and sexual contact, we stopped importing blood and started a public campaign," said Perez while speaking at a sharing program at Dharmais National Cancer Center in Grogol, West Jakarta.
He said Cuba invested US$2 million to purchase equipment to detect and test blood to ensure it was safe for transfusion.
It also took preventive measures, like asking mothers with HIV not to breastfeed their babies. And the effort was successful since only three babies and four hemophiliac patients had reportedly contracted HIV since 1986.
Perez said education remained a useful instrument to contain the spread of HIV in Cuba.
The education aims to raise public awareness of high-risk behavior while at the same time promoting preventive measures like the use of condoms. So far, he said, activists and people living with HIV/AIDS were involved in the campaign at schools and workplaces.
"It is the couple's right whether to use a condom or not but at least we have provided them with comprehensive information," Perez said. The use of condoms in Cuba increased from just 20 percent in 1986 to staggering 85 percent at present, he claimed.
Perez said the average age of people living with HIV/AIDS in Cuba was 27. Girls started having sex at 13 years of age while the boys started at 15 years of age.
Cuba, he said, also campaigned against discrimination of people living with HIV/AIDS.
"A society that denies it has a problem is like an ostrich that buries its head under the ground while its other parts can still be seen," Perez said.
Cuba started producing generic drugs free of charge for people with HIV in 2001.
The country has also been working on a prevention vaccine since 1998 and a therapeutic vaccine since early this year in a bid to further provide affordable means to contain the epidemic.
Samsuridjal Djauzi of the AIDS working group (Pokdisus) at the University of Indonesia said Indonesia could apply some of the strategies used by Cuba although it had some differences in characteristics of the epidemic and geographical conditions.
"Cuba is a small and developing country but it dares to spend large amounts to serve the needs and rights of people living with HIV/AIDS," said Samsuridjal, also director of the National Cancer Center and an immunologist.