Many fail to grasp the reality of AIDS

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.