More Papuans HIV positive

More Papuans HIV positive

JAYAPURA: The number of people with HIV/AIDS is on the rise in
Papua, with around 500 people testing positive for the virus
every year.

Latest data from the Papua province health office in March
this year showed that 1,874 people were HIV/AIDS positive, an
increase from the 1,749 people in December last year.

"If there's an addition of 125 HIV positive people in three
months, it means 500 in a year. That's an official figure. But if
we use the theory that claims for every known HIV positive case
there are 100 unknown, it might mean 5,000 HIV positive cases a
year," said Suwardi Redjo, head of communicable diseases
subdivision at the Papua health office on Saturday.

Of the official figure of 1,874, 1,131 were HIV positive and
743 had full-blown AIDS. Most of them were between 20-29 years of
age (785), 30-39 years (451), 15-19 years (165) and 40-49 (161).
-- JP