Specter of AIDS looming over Indonesia

Specter of AIDS looming over Indonesia

By David and Joyce Djaelani Gordon

BOGOR, West Java (JP): All across the entire greater Jakarta
area the nightmare of addiction has fully awakened. We are now
face to face with the haunting reality of addiction and addicts:
HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C.

There is no escape, there is nowhere to run, there is nowhere
to hide. The nightmare is real, and the crisis of the addiction
nightmare is as horrifying as your imagination can perceive. The
epidemic of addiction and addicts and the pandemic of HIV/AIDS
and Hepatitis stretches from Batam to Irian Jaya.

Promoting and emphasizing "drug supply reduction strategies"
has not stopped addiction or these diseases from spreading into
and across our communities.

The current estimation of people abusing drugs, and people who
are addicted to drugs is now rapidly approaching 2 million.

Each and every day now at Yayasan Harapan Permata Hati Kita in
Bogor, parents bring their children, boys and girls, into our
recovery center. The fear, frustrations, tears and anger spill
forth from the hearts, minds and lips of each of these parents.
The young addicts sit quietly, staring at the floor, or playing
with their fingers, and hating to have been brought to this
place. Yet these young addicts know their lives have been wrecked
by something: "the drug addiction" they can no longer control.

Yayasan Kita has only been open since last July. We have
accepted 72 addicts and junkies into the Program for
Detoxification, Treatment, Recovery and Aftercare. Of these 72
young (the ages range between 16 and 42) male and female junkies,
53 (more than 73 percent) tested Hepatitis C positive (a virus
that with time causes cirrhosis and cancer of the liver). Eight
have tested positive for HIV/AIDS. There is no cure for either
virus. These viruses are highly contagious, and both are deadly.
The numbers and percentage of this nightmare grows daily.

These viruses are mostly spread by sharing needles and having
unprotected sex.

IDUs (Intravenous Drug Users -- people who are injecting drugs
with needles) are becoming more and more common. More than 60
percent of the putaw addicts are now estimated to be IDUs. Drug
abusers and addicts who use and share needles are the most
susceptible to becoming infected with the HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis
viruses. Drug users, abusers and addicts are now considered to be
in the ultra high risk group.

We have had to look these young people in the eye and tell
them: "not only are you an addict, you also have Hepatitis C, or
you have Hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS." At first what you see in
their juvenile eyes is disbelief. All time stops and freezes,
then fear comes, then the tragic horror and truth of the
nightmare sets in as they begin to realize that what we have just
told them is: "you have an incurable virus, and it is going to
kill you".

We have to tell these addicts that they need to stop using
drugs, any drugs. Because continued use of drugs will aggravate
their conditions. Recent studies in the U.S. have found that
cocaine and shabu-shabu (crystal methamphetamine) speed up the
replication process of these viruses. Alcohol is toxic to people,
especially addicts, who have any type of liver disease.

We have to look the parents in the eye, exactly the same as we
do with their children, and tell them the same thing: "Your son
or daughter has Hepatitis C, or HIV/AIDS." The parents
immediately stare into empty space, lose their breath, and all
energy drains from their bodies; they slump down, limp from the
words, and the tears begin to flow.

They ask us to repeat what we just said. They ask us to
explain what we said, and explain what Hepatitis and HIV/AIDS is,
and what each virus does.

The reality of these moments lasts a lifetime. This diagnosis
is now becoming a daily occurrence at our center. Each time we
have to tell someone they have Hepatitis or the HIV/AIDS Virus is
heartbreaking for everyone. It never gets easier, only more
difficult.

Most Indonesians truly do not understand the severity of
addiction and addicts, or HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis, as of yet. The
number of addicts is rapidly increasing, so are the reported
cases of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis. Statistics are only barely
beginning to begin to record the number of people that have been
tested, and are found to be HIV positive, those that have died,
and are dying from AIDS.

Indonesia really does not report the number of deaths caused
by drug overdoses (usually from Putaw/heroin), even though many
young people are dying daily from overdoses.

Much is being shared today about drugs, addiction and these
viruses in Indonesia. Still, hardly anyone truly understands what
to do with addicts. This is a large part of the reason addiction
is such a nightmare.

Parents and the general public think that detoxification, or a
short-term stay in some hospital or institution, or counseling in
some drop-in center will cure their child of addiction. Parents
spend millions of rupiah on detoxification, then spend millions
more on medication.

Parents do this over and over again, hoping in vain something,
anything, will cure their children from this nightmare. Yet it
does not work because addiction is not simply a physical
condition. It is a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual
condition. And because basic detoxification does not stop or cure
the addiction, the nightmare continues and becomes worse.

Residential treatment programs, community-based self-help
programs and the 12-step program of Narcotics Anonymous are the
best ways to combat addiction today. HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis must
be dealt with in the same way, because those involved at the core
have the best, most current knowledge and information available
for addicts, infected addicts and their families.

Indonesia has run out of time for both hope and guess-work.
This is the time for combined and community action. Anything
else, other than action only helps the nightmare to spread.

- The writers are program directors at the Yayasan Harapan
Permata Hati Kita Recovery Center in Bogor, West Java.