USAID, RI start anti-AIDS project
USAID, RI start anti-AIDS project
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has started a US$ 26.7 million project aimed at containing the spread of AIDS.
Hidajat Hardjoprawito of the Indonesia's Ministry of Health and Charles F. Weden of USAID on Monday signed the HIV/AIDS Prevention Project (HAPP) which will support the existing anti- AIDS campaign.
USAID will contribute US$20 million of the total funds.
Among the programs to be carried out are campaigns to increase public awareness of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, which causes the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
The project will also seek ways to improve diagnosis and provide counseling for HIV patients and other sexually- transmitted diseases, and to expand access to services that prevent the diseases' transmission.
The Indonesian government has already made HIV/AIDS prevention a national priority, developing last year a National AIDS Strategy and a Five-year Plan of Action for containing the spread of the virus.
President Soeharto launched on Saturday a family AIDS- awareness movement, putting the onus on families to prevent, and fight against, the deadly disease.
"The HAPP project is designed to directly support the Indonesian government's ongoing efforts to promote family resilience by combating HIV/AIDS," Weden said.
In support of the National AIDS Strategy, the project will provide information and education to increase public awareness of how HIV/AIDS is transmitted and how it can be prevented, Weden said.
"This effort will encourage people to reduce behavior that places them at risk of infection and will seek to dispel the various myths that still surround HIV/AIDS," he said.
"The project seeks to engage all members of society in the fight against HIV/AIDS," explained Joseph Carney, who heads up USAID's Human and Institutional Resource Development Office.
AIDS was first reported here in 1987. As of last December, 67 Indonesians are known to have AIDS and at least 208 others have tested HIV positive.
A number of officials, however, have said that the actual HIV figure could be 200 times higher, and could reach 50,000 by the end of this year. (swe)