More cases of HIV/AIDS reported to health officials

More cases of HIV/AIDS reported to health officials

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Health last month recorded 14
more cases of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired
Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), bringing Indonesia's official
total to 463.

Twelve people tested positive for HIV and two were discovered
to have AIDS.

Director General for Communicable Disease Control and
Environmental Health Hadi M. Abednego said there was a direct
correlation between the increase in the number of HIV and AIDS
cases and the cost of health care because it took an average of
ten years for HIV to develop into AIDS.

Hadi said 1994 ministry estimates put the "direct lifetime
treatment cost" for each person with HIV or AIDS at US$8,000.
Indirect costs were an estimated $31,700.

Direct cost was the estimated cost of the medical treatment
likely to be required. Indirect cost was an estimate of
potential earnings likely to be lost by people with the syndrome,
he said.

"Medical treatment for people with AIDS is expensive and
still, unfortunately, they do not get better. They die, instead,"
Hadi said.

Direct and indirect costs increase as the condition develops.

"So, the message is, we have to prevent people from
contracting the virus because medical treatment will not cure
them," he said.

Indonesia has not earmarked special funding for the treatment
of HIV or AIDS. Funding currently comes from the government
allotment to hospitals.

"Poor people with AIDS, can get free treatment in state-owned
hospitals," he said.

Stefano Lazzari, the World Health Organization (WHO) Medical
Officer on Sexually Transmitted Diseases and AIDS in Indonesia,
warned that an HIV pandemic was costly and debilitating.

"The only way to reduce the burden is to immediately start
sound and effective preventive interventions," Lazzari said at a
seminar on health care insurance Thursday.

WHO estimates 25.5 million adults and 2.4 million children
worldwide are currently living with HIV, 19 million in Sub-
Saharan Africa, five million in South and Southeast Asia and 1.6
million in Latin America.

"The global AIDS epidemic is now spreading faster in Asia than
anywhere else in the world. Soon, more Asians than Africans will
be getting infected each year," Lazzari said.

Africa was experiencing an increase in AIDS cases from
infections 10 years ago, but South and Southeast Asia are seeing
an increase in new HIV infections among vulnerable population
groups, he said.

"By year 2000, the cumulative number of infections in Asia
will be eight to ten million cases and the annual incidence would
far exceed that seen in sub-Saharan Africa," Lazzari said.

India, with five million cases, had the largest number of HIV-
positive people in the world, he estimated.

The ministry routinely receives reports from regional and
local health offices monitoring AIDS and HIV.

Hadi said of the 12 HIV-positive people, ten were residents of
Maluku, one was from Jakarta and one from East Java. The two with
AIDS come from Jakarta and North Sulawesi. Twelve were women in
their 20's while the two with AIDS were men in their 40's.

The national tally records 110 people with AIDS -- 66 of whom
have died, and 353 HIV-positive people, including an infant.

In Jakarta 156 people have AIDS or are HIV-positive. Irian
Jaya has 111 people with the condition, Riau has 44, East Java
has 36 and Bali has 35. (ste)