Mandatory HIV tests out of the question: Official

Mandatory HIV tests out of the question: Official

Fitri Wulandari and Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta

Indonesia cannot make Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) tests
mandatory for migrant workers because Jakarta is party to an
international agreement it signed in Paris, which bans such
examinations, a government official said on Monday.

Haikin Rachmat, director of communicable diseases and
environmental health at the Ministry of Health, said that under
the 1994 agreement, compulsory HIV tests would be a violation of
human rights.

"In accordance with the Paris Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome (AIDS) Summit in 1994 and the government's policy on
AIDS monitoring, we don't require workers intending to work
abroad or at home to take HIV tests," he told The Jakarta Post".

Haikin said Indonesia and 42 other countries that signed the
summit agreement declared that people who had contracted HIV/AIDS
should not be discriminated against in their field of work and
that a HIV test was a matter of personal choice.

He was responding to calls by demography experts for the
government to introduce compulsory HIV tests for migrant workers
as a means to prevent the rapid spread of the deadly virus.

Graeme Hugo, an expert from Australia's University of
Adelaide, said on Thursday the high mobility of nomadic workers,
who often changed sexual partners, had contributed to the vast
spread of HIV/AIDS in Indonesia. Hugo suggested the Indonesian
government monitor migrant workers to control the spread of HIV.

Officially the number of recorded HIV/AIDS cases in Indonesia
stands at 1,559. But activists believe the number has reached
between 80,000 and 120,000 cases.

Haikin said HIV tests are compulsory for blood donors and
foreign migrant workers if required by the host country wanting
to employ them. Such a test is conducted by the Ministry of
Manpower and the relevant labor recruitment agency, he added.

He said the government conducted non-compulsory HIV tests
every year for the purposes of AIDS monitoring and individual
diagnosis.

A patient's identity should be kept confidential, he said.

Haikin said the government had taken several preventive
measures to curb the spread of the virus in cooperation with non-
governmental organizations.

These measures include promoting the use of condoms among sex
workers and encouraging migrant workers to undergo voluntary
tests, he said.