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.