Systematic, clear campaign needed to combat AIDS
Debbie A. Lubis, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The country is in dire need of a systematic strategy and a clear campaign to fight HIV/AIDS, as only a few people are aware of the danger of the condition and its causal factors, a psychiatrist said on Friday.
Dadang Hawari, a drug consultant at the National Narcotics Agency, criticized the country's policy of adopting Western strategies of fighting AIDS without reserve.
"We cannot suggest that drug users should use their own needles and not share them with others when using drugs, or use condoms while having sex to avoid the HIV infection. We should ban this behavior, not justify it or facilitate it," he told The Jakarta Post.
A study group set up by the University of Indonesia and the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital (RSCM) revealed that more than 30 people in the country were infected with HIV/AIDS every month, mainly through sexual intercourse and the sharing of needles.
The Ministry of Health has estimated that there are 120,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in the country.
Citing a study conducted in the United States, Dadang said 29 out of 89 condoms in circulation in the U.S. leaked.
He added that people who were IV drug users and were sexually promiscuous faced "double jeopardy" in the risk of contracting HIV.
He said drug users often shared their needles among many people, and unprotected sex was common among this community because the drugs decreased their sexual inhibitions.
A study conducted by the United Nations International Drug Control Program showed an alarming level of drug use in Indonesia. And the United Nations Aids Agency revealed that there was a significant rise in infection among blood donors in some places in Indonesia.
Sujudi, the chairman of the Blood Transfusion Unit at the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), said HIV/AIDS prevalence among blood donors was only 0.007 percent last year, or only 100 out of 1.2 million bags of blood were found to be infected with the virus.
Noroyono Wibowo, an AIDS expert at the RSCM, said it was often difficult to detect whether donated blood was infected with the virus, because there is a "window" period for the virus before it can be detected.
"It requires a highly sensitive testing tool like the Polymer Chain Reaction to detect the virus during the 'window' period. But it is so expensive, about Rp 1.2 million (US$133), and takes eight to 12 hours to get a result," he told the Post.
The most common test here is the Eliza test, which costs Rp 75,000 with results within two hours. Another testing tool is the Western Blood test, which costs Rp 500,000.
Patients at RSCM usually pay up to Rp 175,000 for one blood bag from the PMI, most of which are tested with the Eliza test.
Noroyono said it was often difficult for doctors to tell if a blood donor was an IV drug user, because they did not always inject the drugs into their arms.
"They inject the substance into their tongue or vagina so sometimes doctors fail to notice," he said.