Young drug addicts targeted to curb quick spread of HIV/AIDS
Young drug addicts targeted to curb quick spread of HIV/AIDS
Remmy Faizal, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
At first he had only meant to try something new, something he had
often seen being done by his schoolmates.
"I was aware that I was in an unhealthy environment at school.
But it was my own choice to try it in the end," said Keju,
describing his introduction to the world of injecting drugs in
1996. He was still in junior high school at the time.
From then, he became an injecting drug user (IDU) who ended up
having to undergo a series of detoxification therapies before
being allowed to enter a drug rehabilitation center.
"There was a time when my family had to sell a car to pay the
expenses," Keju said.
His family's efforts finally paid off when he decided to quit
using drugs in 2001.
After three years free of drugs, a new problem emerged.
"I met an old friend who also used to be an IDU. He persuaded
me to take test for AIDS. It was then, I found out that I was HIV
positive," Keju told a public discussion themed Saving the Youth
from HIV/AIDS at the Central Jakarta municipal office on
Wednesday.
Keju is one of many young people who are known to have been
infected by the virus by sharing needles.
But unlike him, a lot of injecting drug users are still
unaware of how prone they are to HIV/AIDS.
The government's statistics, while they are not a complete
picture, show that many people known to be living with HIV/AIDS
are injecting drug users, and many of these are teenagers.
The Ministry of Health recorded in 2003 the number of drug
users known to have HIV/AIDS in Jakarta numbered 122, a figure
that jumped to 1,095 in 2004. As of March this year, there were
an additional 438 known cases, 59 percent of them caused by virus
transmission through dirty needles or hospital blood
transfusions.
This lack of knowledge about the dangers of transmission
through drug-use led to the Catholic University of Atma Jaya
establishing the Health Information Kiosk program, widely known
as Kios. Keju has joined one of Kios' support groups for people
living with HIV/AIDS.
Running since February 2002, Kios provides free HIV/AIDS
tests, medical treatment, counseling, and group programs where
former and current drug users with HIV-AIDS can share stories and
help each other out.
The program has been established in 27 districts in Jakarta,
mostly in slum areas, said Kios director Lamtiur Tambunan, a
speaker at the discussion.
"This new 'trend' -- the spreading of HIV/AIDS through
injecting drug users -- means we must support and help IDUs to
realize the danger (they are in). From there, we have them take
HIV/AIDS tests and seek medical treatment (when necessary)."
"Discrimination will only make the matters worse," she said.
Another speaker, Nasrun Hadi, a member of the Stop Aids Action
Foundation (ASA), asserted that early intervention among youth
groups at-risk from drugs was vital to curb the spread of
HIV/AIDS.
"To achieve this, there must be strong cooperation between
non-governmental organizations and the government. And of course,
we must not forget to involve the wider society," Lamtiur added.