Three more HIV/AIDS cases reported

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Health found three more people with AIDS/HIV in April, bringing the number of reported cases to 527.

The ministry's Director General for the Prevention of Communicable Diseases Wisnu Katim released a statement over the weekend that one AIDS carrier, a foreign baby, was detected in West Java and two HIV carriers were detected in Bali and Central Java. AIDS/HIV cases have now been reported in all but four provinces.

The 128 reported AIDS cases are spread across 21 provinces: 62 in Jakarta, 26 in Irian Jaya, 13 in Bali, 11 in West Java, six in East Java, two in each of North Sumatra, Central Java, Yogyakarta and West Nusa Tenggara and one in each of South Sumatra and North Sulawesi.

One of the AIDS carriers died in April. Seventy-five of the registered 128 carriers have now died.

Wisnu said the two people with HIV reported in April were aged between 20 and 29.

A World Health Organization AIDS officer, Dr. Stefano Lazzari, said that, of the 26 cases reported between Jan. 1 and April 30, nine had AIDS and 17 had HIV.

Lazzari said that a shorter AIDS treatment program was being developed to help pregnant carriers in developing countries, including Indonesia.

He said the program, on a one-year trial in Thailand, would show results in two to three years' time, but he cautioned that the long-term implications would remain unknown.

"Under the standard method, a very complicated process of continuous infusion of the drug is administered during the delivery of the child for which neither the technology or skilled personnel is available in developing countries," he said.

Lazzari said high costs were a barrier to many seeking treatment in developing countries, with the monthly cost of AIDS medication ranging from US$1,000 to $1,500 with daily dosages of 20 tablets at exact intervals.

He said two levels of public education on AIDS had to be developed. The first was general information aimed at as many people as possible. The second was a more specialized program targeted at high-risk groups, including intravenous drug users and people with multiple sexual partners. (01)