HIV/AIDS

December 1st, 2006, in News, by Patung

Some fear a coming explosion in the numbers of AIDS sufferers.

Health minister Siti Fadilah Supari is reported to have said that Indonesia, which currently is estimated to have between 169,000-216,000 HIV carriers, although with only 7,000 full-blown AIDS cases having been reported, will likely reach 500,000 cases of HIV, the virus which causes AIDS, by 2010, if preventive measures are not actively pursued.

Siti Fadilah Supari
Siti Fadilah Supari.

HIV/AIDS is an iceberg phenomenon. It is very likely that there are more HIV/AIDS patients not being reported.

Drug users account for over half of Indonesia’s known AIDS cases, but the unsafe practises of prostitutes and their customers are the most likely to spread the disease deep into the community, Supari said. She claims:

There are between 2.5 and 3.8 million men who use prostitutes, and only 15% of them are willing to use condoms.

Such men, she says, will carry the disease to their girlfriends, wives, and children.

The government is currently conducting a national anti-AIDS campaign and working to increase the number of hospitals capable of handling the disease, and wants to spend 8 trillion rupiah ($871 million) on anti-AIDS programmes over the next five years. [1]

Meanwhile, Ma’ruf Amin, the head of the main Muslim clerical body, the Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI), blames the spread of the disease on poor standards of morality and the declining influence of religion.

The role of religious morality keeps weakening so that free sex, homosexual relations, and drug use have become the causes of a disease which has no treatment (sic).
(Peran moral agama yang semakin menurun seperti terjadinya pergaulan seks bebas dan juga pergaulan sesama jenis (homo dan lesbi) serta pergaulan obat-obatan terlarang merupakan hal yang menjadi penyebab penyakit yang hingga saat ini belum ada obatnya ini.)

He advised that families instill good moral discipline in their children so that they would keep away from sexual activity outside of marriage, as well as narcotics usage. Television stations should also improve their programming so as to stop contributing to the moral degradation of the country.

Ma'ruf Amin
Ma’ruf Amin.

However he urged that AIDS sufferers not be isolated from society, because the disease was not an epidemic (presumably meaning not contagious except through intimate contact). Families should care for victims, he said. [2]

_______________________

February 18th 2007.

I Nyoman Kandun, the director general of the health ministry’s contagious diseases department, said HIV was spreading quickly among high-risk groups and in backward parts of Indonesia.

The epidemic has spread swiftly among injecting drug users, transsexuals and prostitutes, from and to their clients.

A review of the AIDS situation in Indonesia, jointly organised by the health ministry and W.H.O., found that the HIV infection rate in the province of Papua was more than 20 times the national average, with 2% of Papuans carrying HIV. [3]

_______________________

February 24th 2007.

The World Health Organization says that Indonesia’s AIDS epidemic is among the fastest growing in Asia, especially among intravenous drug users and prostitutes, and half of new infections are in Papua. There were 2,873 new AIDS cases in Indonesia in 2006, a 140% increase from 1,195 in 2004, with most cases found in IV users and prostitutes, WHO said, according to the Jakarta Post.

Papua had by far the largest population of people with AIDS, accounting for 20 times the national average - around 50% of the country’s total number of cases.

More than 2% of the population in Papua are infected with HIV/AIDS.

In total there are estimated 169,000 to 216,000 infected people in the nation of 220 million.

  1. ↑1 antara
  2. ↑2 republika
  3. ↑3 antara

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7 Comments on “HIV/AIDS”

  1. Retarders Says:
    December 1st, 2006 at 12:33 am

    Ma’ruf Amin looks like he had HIV…. is he telling the truth ? Or is there a skeleton in the closet ?? Wasn’t he “homoan” with Rhoma and Ki Gendeng Pamungkas ??? People… we need the truth :D

  2. Tomaculum Says:
    December 2nd, 2006 at 2:28 pm

    In one thing I 100%-ly agree with him: irrespective the “faillings” and the misfortunes they left behind them (which caused the contagion of AIDS), the family (and the friends should care for those poor women and men and shouldn’t turn away from them.

  3. 1ndra Says:
    December 2nd, 2006 at 9:07 pm

    It’s hard to, at least slowing down the infection…when people are not open minded…

  4. Bas Says:
    December 3rd, 2006 at 7:13 am

    Facts.

    I know many many guys and girls who actually died from AIDS in Jakarta but the word ‘AIDS’ has never been openly pronouced by them or their entourage. It’s a shame here. Well… AIDS actually never kill by itself, is it?

    I have never ever met in 13 years in that country an Indonesian man who always uses condom.

    About 80% of the guys I know regularly use pro or amateur prostitutes services. 99% are not faithfull to their wife or girlfriend. The good thing about being an “expat” here is that the locals automaticaly think you are a serial f*cker. Since they think you are as crazy as them they just don’t try to hide their real face and dark life to you…

    Welcome AIDS!

  5. Tomaculum Says:
    December 3rd, 2006 at 2:02 pm

    Hello Bas,
    as an Indonesian expat living in Europe and working in health matters I follow the growth of AIDS in South-east-Asia. It is horrible. But the problem is not just AIDS allone, but the coincidence with other disease especially the tuberculosis. The most terrible problem is that we find nowaday more and more multiresistant tuberculosis germs insensitive to almost all of the antituberculotical medicaments we know, so the treatment is medically nearly impossible or it is very, very expensiv.
    And more fatal is the fact, that tuberculosis is easier to be carried forward then AIDS.

    To your statement:

    I have never ever met in 13 years in that country an Indonesian man who always uses condom.

    How did/do you come to such insight? Do/did you question the clientele in red light establishements?

    To a further statement of yours:

    The good thing about being an “expat” here is that the locals automaticaly think you are a serial f*cker. Since they think you are as crazy as them they just don’t try to hide their real face and dark life to you”¦

    Such interpersonal/intercultural impressions have their causes at both sides, aren’t they?
    The Indonesians see an in Indonesia living expat (especially such from the west, read: caucasian) as for his personal live stranger and strange objects inoccuous for themself, if they tell you their privat (sexual) “secrets”. And don’t you know that many Indonesian men are very excellent myth teller?

    Last but not least:
    We can’t say welcome again too AIDS. AIDS is already a massive problem in South east Asia and off course in Indonesia too!!

  6. Ale Says:
    August 2nd, 2007 at 6:24 am

    Such men, she says, will carry the disease to their girlfriends, wives, and children.

    Was she implying that Indonesian men are having unprotected sex with their children? euww.

  7. Gatot Soedarto Says:
    May 29th, 2008 at 4:39 pm

    I am quite sure there be something fundamentally wrong with the scientific investigation and identification about HIV / AIDS. Remember that outputs of research related to the micro elements cannot be trusted as something final. ” HIV ” is a form of transformation, it is widely believed by general public as a micro biology. However, I am quite sure that the ” HIV ” can be viewed as the type of toxic organic compound occuring due to a chemical process at the living tissue, as the effect of radiation. In particular, the ” HIV ” occurs due Ultra Violet Radiation. I am quite sure if the effects of Ultra Violet Radiation are terminated, the ” HIV ” will automatically die by itself. Meanwhile on its connection with the free sex behavior, they ( the free sex doers ) make themselves the absorber of Ultra Violet Radiation.
    Therefore, I appeal to scientists who get involved in AIDS prevention to conduct further research on the relationship between ” HIV ” and Ultra Violet Radiation. Also, to rethinking and examine the invulnerability baboon to ” HIV ” ( Baboon Experiments ). I think, the baboon fluff terminated the Ultra Violet Radiation, so in the body of baboon ” HIV ” automatically die by itself.
    Finally, Iam quite sure the key factor for AIDS patient treatment is how to stop or terminate the Ultra Violet Radiation. In my opinion, we need something like Free Radiation treatment Room ( FRR ).
    May God bless all of us and give His guidance and lead way towards better dedication to mankind.

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