Two Bitung residents HIV positive

BITUNG, North Sulawesi: The Bitung health ministry office has detected two women in the city who have been infected by Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

"The two women tested positive for HIV at the general hospital in the city," Dirk Lengkong, chief of the local health office, said here on Saturday.

Dirk, who declined to identify the two local people, asked people working in hotels, to be alert to the possible spread of HIV in the regency and called for the use of condoms if they had sex with prostitutes.

He said Bitung was prone to HIV and AIDS because the Bitung seaport was frequently visited by foreign ships. --Antara