Possible AIDS cure, a dream for many

Possible AIDS cure, a dream for many

By Tom Wright

JAKARTA (Reuter): For one pregnant, HIV-infected patient at
the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital in Jakarta, talk in
Canada of a possible cure for the killer disease AIDS can only be
a pipedream.

The 23 year-old woman, who asked to remain anonymous because
of possible discrimination, could not even afford to get to
Jakarta from her village 100 km (60 miles) away.

At a conference earlier this month in Vancouver, delegates
said a cocktail of drugs had been found to clear victims' bodies
of HIV infection, but said results were not definitive -- and
would cost US$15,000 a year.

The Indonesian woman left school at 13 and contracted the
disease working as a prostitute in her village. Only tested
positive by chance when a medical team visited, her experience
symbolizes the bitter struggle doctors in Indonesia face in
controlling the disease.

"I knew AIDS was to do with the blood but I didn't know it was
sexually transmitted," she told Reuters from her iron-frame bed,
averting her eyes. HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is the
virus that can lead to AIDS, or Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome.

Referred to Cipto hospital because local doctors were
incapable of treating her, the woman is kept in one of only two
beds for the 55 HIV/AIDS cases the hospital deals with.

In a country where the average daily wage is only $2 and
health insurance is almost unheard of, she is one of the lucky
few to be treated.

A world away at the 11th International Conference on AIDS in
Vancouver, scientists from two research teams showed that when
AZT -- the first approved AIDS drug -- is combined with related
drugs and new agents called protease inhibitors, the results are
promising.

Researchers at New York's Aaron Diamond AIDS research center
put nine volunteers on the new drug regimen. Although findings
are tentative, several weeks after starting the course none of
the patients had any detectable HIV in their blood.

According to Dr. Adi Sasongko of Kusuma Buana -- a volunteer
organization which runs AIDS test clinics in Jakarta -- these
findings are for the moment irrelevant to Indonesia.

"The situation here should be seen not in terms of treatment
but we should try and change people's sexual behavior," he said.
His reluctance to hail the treatment appeared to be related to
its cost.

The Cipto hospital AIDS unit, one of only two in Jakarta, a
city of 10 million people, relies on donations from the families
of victims to stay afloat.

Volunteer

The work of volunteer organizations staffed by housewives,
nurses and medical advisors is crucial. Pelita Ilmu -- a
voluntary organization which offers information and support to
HIV/AIDS victims -- transports patients free of charge from
villages to Jakarta for further tests.

Indonesia has made great strides since the 1960s, when
inflation ran at 400 percent and the country was counted among
the poorest in the world.

But President Soeharto's visit earlier this month to a private
clinic near Hanover, Germany, for a check-up underscored the
increasing inequalities in medical treatment in the country.

"Only rich people have the chance to be cured (if the new HIV
treatment is a success). Poor people can't do that," said
Samsurizal, a doctor who deals with HIV/AIDS patients at the
Jakarta hospital.

AIDS treatment in Indonesia, a nation of 190 million people
spread over an archipelago of about 14,000 islands, is restricted
to Jakarta and one or two other big cities.

"Outside of big cities, doctors have no experience of HIV and
therefore are sometimes afraid," Samsurizal said.

Official government figures put the number of HIV/AIDS cases
in Indonesia at 400, although the World Health Organization has
said that about 50,000 people might have HIV.

About 90 percent of the world's 22 million HIV-infected people
live in developing countries, most of which have inadequate
health provisions and are not the preferred markets for
pharmaceutical companies.

The main barrier to checking the disease in Indonesia is
ignorance about its prevention and how HIV is transmitted.
Therefore, doctors say, hundreds of cases go unreported every
year.

However, the fight against ignorance is only part of the
battle.

Last year, Hasan Basri, the chairman of the Council of Ulemas
-- an influential Moslem organization -- was quoted as saying
that government campaigns promoting the use of condoms would also
mean the government allowed adultery. Indonesia's population is
90 percent Moslem.

"I really regret this attitude," said Sasongko, adding that
religious and government officials did not understand the issues
involved in encouraging the use of condoms.