Samsuridjal gives all to fight HIV

Samsuridjal gives all to fight HIV

Debbie A. Lubis, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

When a group of health workers and community leaders leisurely
chatted with an HIV positive woman on her veranda, residents in a
village in Indramayu regency, West Java were startled.

They were even more surprised watching a doctor eat snacks
offered by the woman. The residents were afraid the doctor would
be infected by the virus.

The doctor is Samsuridjal Djauzi, who set up Pelita Ilmu
Foundation (YPI) -- an organization which campaigns against the
spread of HIV, with his colleagues in 1989, at a time when not
many people were aware or well-informed about the disease.

The 58-year-old internist said many people in the village knew
the woman was HIV positive since it was hard to keep a secret
there.

"We need to set an example to the public that HIV is not
contagious through a handshake or food. With proper information,
I believe people, especially those living in villages, will not
fear, stigmatize or discriminate against people with HIV/AIDS,"
said the director of Dharmais National Cancer Center of the 1997
visit.

And the effort was not fruitless. He said that a year after
the team visited the woman, the villagers dared to bring their
children to attend a birthday party of the woman's daughter.

In Indramayu regency, as well as in Karawang regency, West
Java, Samsuridjal installed YPI's activists there after finding
out that most of the HIV positive sex workers who were cast out
of Batam in Riau, were from both regencies. In their jobs, those
activists work alongside community health center's health workers
in the area to educate villagers about HIV/AIDS.

In its line of work, the foundation did not only receive
praise, but also criticism, some saying that its campaigns focus
more on teenagers than sex workers.

"Actually, teenagers are a high-risk group since they are
sexually active. Besides, they still have plenty of time to
prevent themselves from being infected by the virus," said the
man who got his doctorate degree from the University of Indonesia
in 2001.

Born in Bukittingi, West Sumatra in May 1945, Samsuridjal grew
up with his two siblings in Kampung Bali, Tanah Abang area in
Central Jakarta from the age of 10. His father, once a teacher in
West Sumatra, became a textile trader in Jakarta while his mother
remained a housewife.

His regular job was helping his mother shop at the market in
the morning and then assisting his father in the store, until he
was in his fourth year at university.

As a child, Samsuridjal loved to read and had read the works
of Tolstoy, Rabindranath Tagore, Hemingway, Nehru, Maxim Gorki,
Abdul Muis, Sutan Takdir Alisyahbana, Selasih, Hamka, Pramudya
Ananta Toer, and Nur Sutan Iskandar, all when he was still in
elementary school.

"At first, the librarian did not allow me to borrow those
books because I was too young to understand. But I was persistent
since I had finished all the children's books," he recalled.

In his adolescent years, Samsuridjal was active in several
organizations like the Islamic Students Association (HMI). At the
time when he chaired HMI, he was 20 years old, and was often
interrogated by the police suspicious that the organization's
activities were backed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

"It's my family, books and organizational activities that make
me always side with those who are marginalized because I've been
there myself, feeling hungry because we did not have food, or did
not have money to buy shoes. But being poor did not stop me from
achieving my goals," he said.

Samsuridjal graduated in 1969 from the University of
Indonesia's School of Medicine and furthered his studies in
internal medicine. In 1973 he was awarded a scholarship to study
tropical medicine and hygiene at Mahidol University, Bangkok,
Thailand.

"I sent half of my US$200 allowance to my wife and son back
home. I passed those hard times though I lost weight
drastically," said the man, who got married in 1970. His second
child, a daughter, was born when he was still studying in
Bangkok.

Back home, in 1976, he was assigned by the Ministry of Health
to Samarinda General Hospital in East Kalimantan. At that time,
he was the only specialist in the province and was elected as the
chairman of Samarinda chapter of the Indonesian Doctors
Association (IDI).

"Maybe the life in Samarinda had inspired my children to
become doctors. I always took them to visit patients in remote
areas by speedboat but I never tried to influence them to choose
a particular occupation," said the father of two, both doctors.

And it was his concern over the rapid spread of HIV in the
country that made Samsuridjal dedicate himself to campaign
against the deadly virus.

In 1996, while visiting Merauke regency in Papua, he brought
along with him pictures of people displaying HIV/AIDS symptoms
and showed them to local community leaders. After looking at the
photos, the leaders said some residents in their villages had
showed similar symptoms.

"Within two hours, we found six people with HIV/AIDS symptoms.
Some of them had even developed severe symptoms like diarrhea,
mouth sores with fungal growth and were emaciated. There, we were
touched watching a man who was taking care of his ailing 20-year-
old nephew using a plastic bag to cover his hands," recalled
Samsuridjal, who also set up a community-based drug
rehabilitation program in Kampung Bali, Central Jakarta in
cooperation with the local community health center there.

His work has not always run smoothly. In 1995, he was barred
from treating patients in an exclusive hospital in Jakarta for
helping HIV positive people. Instead of suing the hospital, the
chairman of the Indonesian Internists Association trained the
hospital's nurses and management in dealing with people with
HIV/AIDS.

The fact that HIV/AIDS cases continued to rise moved
Samsuridjal and his colleagues to expand their work, by providing
drugs for HIV/AIDS patients. After collecting some money to
import generic Antiretroviral drugs from India and Thailand, they
-- through the working groups on HIV/AIDS of the University of
Indonesia, distributed the drugs to those in need.

However, demand has exceeded the supply.

At present, there are 350 people with HIV in the country who
have access to the generic life-saving drugs while some 85,000
others cannot afford the treatment. The rest are still on the
waiting list to get the cheap drugs.

"I wish the country could produce its own Antiretroviral drugs
that are affordable and accessible for HIV positive people,
especially the poor."