Many fail to grasp the reality of AIDS

By Syaiful W. Harahap and Jupriadi

UJUNGPANDANG, South Sulawesi (JP): Young girls sitting in a row waiting for guests -- that is the sight every night in one of the night spots in Ujungpandang.

Although 10 HIV/AIDS cases have been recorded in the province (one of the HIV positive people, a male, has died) the sex business is still thriving. Scores of sex workers operate at malls, parks and other public places, including Losari beach.

The recorded number of 10 is the only one which could be determined. Sudirman, program consultant of an AIDS anticipation voluntary group, which is associated with Indonesia HIV/AIDS and Studies Prevention and Care Project supported by AusAID, said "The real figure may be much higher."

This number is only the top of the iceberg. According to the World Health Organization, for each person tested positive, there are one hundred others who are not.

The AIDS anticipation voluntary group has also found four child sex workers who admitted that they have symptoms of a sexually transmitted disease. One teenage girl, a sex worker on Losari beach, said that some of her friends have a sexually transmitted disease.

In the past six months, Indonesian Parenthood Association clinics in South Sulawesi registered 22 people infected with a sexually transmitted disease. Eight of them admitted they were sex workers.

Sexually transmitted diseases accelerate the spread of HIV because the wounds make it possible for the retrovirus to gain easier access.

People who are infected with HIV probably do not even know they have been infected. People can have HIV for 15 years or longer before they show symptoms; much depends on their overall health status and factors such as good nutrition.

Three of the nine remaining HIV positive people in the province are sex workers who are married. One of these has a partner who is also HIV positive. The couple, Tita and Didi (not their real names), as well as the other HIV positive people, are receiving treatment through YATA, a local AIDS foundation. Each of them receives assistance by YATA from AusAID amounting to Rp 7,500 a day.

Dr. H. Sabir Siyu, a psychiatrist who treats HIV positive people, said: "We can only give them vitamins."

Nearly 90 percent of the world's people with HIV/AIDS cannot afford to buy the various retrovirus medicines available. In the U.S., a HIV positive person can spend between US$12,000 and $15,000 on retrovirus medication.

Before the HIV positive sex workers got married, the three women were treated at the Mattiro Deceng Social Rehabilitation Center of the Ministry of Social Affairs in Ujungpandang. After their marriage, they were given equipment and capital.

One of the couples intended to live in their village in Southeast Sulawesi. Dr. Siyu sent a letter to the regional offices of the Health and Social Affairs Ministries and the chief of the village where the couple was heading. But what happened next was not assistance from the authorities concerned. The couple became news. The community chased the couple away. "I strongly regret that the letter was leaked to the media," said Siyu.

Tita and Didi, whose pictures were printed in local media when they got married last year, have had to move house three times as their neighbors would not accept them.

Even though people are aware of the high-risk factor of prostitution in the spread of HIV, the sex business is still going strong. The Metastase foundation, an NGO concerned with AIDS, estimates the number of sex workers in the city at 3,000.

Preventive efforts have been ineffective. Research shows that using condoms is one effective means of protection from the possibility of being infected with a sexual transmitted disease. However, at various entertainment places and hotels, which are often used as meeting places, it is very difficult to get condoms.

Darwis, a sociologist at Hasanudin University, said it is hard to change the people's lifestyle, which is now more open to casual sex. He said that the ABC Campaign (A for Abstinence, B for Be faithful and C for condom) is not enough.

"I believe more in social and religious sanctions," he said.