World AIDS Day more than just spouting the message

By Chris W. Green

In conjunction with the World AIDS Day, which falls on December 1, attention is being drawn to escalating number of the AIDS victims worldwide and tireless efforts to arouse public's awareness on the deadly AIDS threat. The following articles are written to commemorate the World AIDS Day.

JAKARTA (JP): World AIDS Day too often becomes an occasion for just spreading the message of the dangers of AIDS and the means of preventing its spread. And while prevention of a disease for which there is currently no cure is clearly of utmost importance, we tend to forget those who are already infected in the messages we present.

All too often these messages come over as "good people don't catch AIDS", with the implication that people with AIDS are therefore somehow not good. And this despite the fact that most of the women with AIDS in the world have been totally monogamous, but have been infected by a husband who has not followed the same rule.

As the number of people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, continues to rise in Indonesia, so we need to examine our response to the epidemic. One area of response that has clearly been badly affected by the monetary crisis has been the health sector, and especially the ability of public hospitals to provide care to people with AIDS.

This has particularly affected the main public hospital in Jakarta, Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital (RSCM). This tends to become the 'hospital of last resort' for people who are unable to afford the more expensive alternatives. And as those alternatives (thankfully) are now more willing to accept AIDS patients -- several years back there was really only one, the Metropolitan Medical Center, which welcomed people with AIDS -- so the proportion of really poor patients being admitted by RSCM has risen.

Thus, while in the past, there were a few patients who could afford to contribute to the upkeep of the wards, now this flow has almost totally dried up. The result is predictable.

RSCM has allocated three wards for AIDS patients. One of these is a bigger, airy room with two beds. The other two are smaller single bed wards, which, having no windows, appear rather dark and dreary at the best of times -- hardly a conducive environment for people suffering from such a forbidding disease.

Recently lack of funds caused the hospital management to close the two smaller wards because of maintenance problems. The result has been that they have only been able to accept AIDS patients of a single sex -- if there is already a male in one bed in the larger ward, clearly it is inappropriate to admit a female to the other bed.

To start to address these challenges, Yayasan Spiritia, a foundation dedicated to peer support for people with AIDS and those affected by AIDS, together with POKDISUS AIDS -- a special AIDS study group from the University of Indonesia, decided to 'adopt' these three wards -- bring them back up to standard and help to maintain them.

The first effort was a Kerja Bakti (volunteer working day) held on Nov. 21 by members of the two organizations, to carry out some essential repairs, and brighten up the rooms. Because of major plumbing problems in one of the small rooms, they concentrated on the two other rooms. Volunteers repainted both rooms throughout, cleaned the bathrooms and put them into reasonable working order, and fitted new curtains and new bed linen.

Now both wards look more welcoming and cheery, a factor which must surely help the patients recover their health more quickly.

Viewing the newly-bright rooms, Sister Tuti, who is responsible for the floor at RSCM on which the AIDS wards are located, said, "We're so pleased because this type of help is so rare. Before, the rooms were really bad, but now they are so pleasant both for patients and for the staff."

Jane Wilson, manager of the USAID-funded HIV/AIDS Prevention Project, who put a full day's work in with the group, added that, "Working in the wards today has reminded me of all the reasons why I started working in HIV/AIDS over ten years ago. This virus makes you see life differently. I am very glad to know the people in Spiritia and hope I can work with them often."

Without ongoing attention, conditions can quickly deteriorate again. So Spiritia and POKDISUS plan regular visits and follow up activities. The first priority must be to raise funds to upgrade the remaining ward -- the estimate is that around Rp 3 million should be sufficient.

Suzana Murni, Spiritia's founder, notes that another challenge for patients is that the hospital is unable to supply basic essentials, such as rubber gloves or face masks required by doctors and nurses to examine and care for such patients. Thus the first thing they must do is arrange to buy these items -- plus often such additional items as needles and tubes for infusion.

As Suzana puts it, "We can imagine how distressing this can be to people of limited resources at such a naturally stressful time."

To help address this, Spiritia is also arranging to provide a packet of such essentials to be offered to newly admitted AIDS patients, sufficient to cover the first day of treatment. And as a follow up, Spiritia will offer them a larger package of items tailored to their needs throughout their stay. Besides additional supplies of gloves and masks, this may include syringes, infusion kits, disinfectant, and even bottled water.

Up to now, Spiritia has raised funds for these activities among its own members. But the coffers are already almost empty -- and Spiritia has plans to extend similar activities to other cities in Indonesia with similar challenges. Raising funds for AIDS patients is never easy; unfortunately companies rarely see this as an activity with which they wish to see their names associated. You can help to ensure that this good work continues and expands with donations to Bank Niaga Cinere Branch account number 065/01/19985/11/2 in the name of Spiritia. Or contact Yayasan Spiritia on (021) 7235236 or e-mail: spiritia@rad.net.id for more information.