More people practicing safe sex: Survey
More people practicing safe sex: Survey
Sari P. Setiogi, Jakarta
More Indonesians have begun to practice safe sex, with the use of
condoms by sexually active people on the rise, according to a
survey.
The use of condoms with both regular and nonregular sexual
partners increased to 40 percent and 84 percent, respectively,
among young people last year, from 34 percent and 75 percent in
2002, according to a survey by DKT Indonesia, a non-governmental
organization dealing with reproductive health.
The survey involved interviews with 1,226 males between 20 and
34 years of age in the cities of Jakarta, Surabaya and Denpasar
last year. The findings were released in April. About 55 percent
of the respondents were married, while the remaining were single
and sexually active.
"The use of condoms among married couples is only 1 percent as
it is not their first choice of contraception," DKT Indonesia
country director Christopher Purdy told The Jakarta Post on
Saturday.
According to the survey, the number of people who had more
than one sexual partner increased to 35 percent in 2003, from 28
percent in 2002 and 21 percent in 2000.
Around 79 percent of the respondents said they used condoms to
avoid pregnancy, 52 percent to avoid contracting sexually
transmitted infections (STIs) and 69 percent to avoid other
illnesses. Only 1 percent of the respondents said they used
condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS.
Purdy said the use of condoms was still lower than expected,
despite a program by the Ministry of Health to distribute free
condoms as part of the government's campaign to curb the spread
of HIV/AIDS and STIs.
Among the reasons for this is that there is a public stigma
attached to the use of condoms, which are seen as being for
commercial sex, sex outside of marriage and adultery, he said.
"That makes people feel ashamed to buy condoms. Another reason
is that some people still think that using a condom means either
they or their partners are not 'clean,'" Purdy said.
Indonesian Planned Parenthood Indonesia (PKBI) adviser Zarfiel
Tafal said he did not believe condoms were widely used by high-
income young men.
He called for more efforts to promote condom use among young
males, particularly those who traveled a lot, in order to prevent
the spread of STIs.
"We have to be realistic and stop being hypocrites. We (PKBI)
assume that all adults and teenagers are sexually active and may
suffer from STIs and unwanted pregnancies," he said.
Citing findings by the PKBI last year, Zarfiel said an average
of 30 percent of high school students in the major cities of
Manado, Yogyakarta and Bandung were sexually active.
Pandu Riono, a surveillance specialist with Family Health
International, warned that husbands who traveled a lot were at
risk of spreading HIV/AIDS and STIs because they were more likely
to have extramarital sexual relations.
"They could easily infect their wives and their wives could
transmit the virus to their children," he said.