Indonesia faces growing HIV/AIDS Epidemic , Papua big worry-WHO
Pastor Dale Morgan
Saturday February 17, 4:04 PM Reuters
*Indonesia faces growing HIV/AIDS Epidemic , Papua big worry-WHO*
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia faces a growing AIDS problem --
particularly among drug users and prostitutes -- while a recent survey
shows two percent of the Papua population infected with HIV, the World
Health Organisation said on Saturday.
The sprawling, developing nation of 220 million people also faces
constraints and lack of resources to cope with the problem, Bjorn
Melgaard of the WHO said at the release of the report.
"Indonesia has one of the fastest growing HIV epidemics in Asia.
Although the HIV prevalence among adults is still generally low, it has
reached high levels among specific populations like injecting drug users
and sex workers," the report said.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation but many of its
citizens have a liberal attitude towards sex and prostitution is a
thriving part of the economy in many areas.
Drug usage has also been growing, police say.
The WHO report highlighted a growing concern over HIV cases in the
remote eastern area of Papua, where it said a recent survey showed that
prevalence of HIV in the general population was 20 times the national
average and two percent were infected with HIV.
The report said there was "recent evidence of a generalised epidemic" in
Papua and cited the undeveloped health care system and a lack of
resources to cope with the problem.
Papua, with a population of two million occupying a land area almost as
large as Iraq, has around 300 indigenous tribes, some still living in
virtually Stone Age conditions, with different sets of languages and
traditions.
The Southeast Asian country overall faced constraints dealing with the
problem ranging from weak preventative programmes among high risk
groups, blood safety issues and poor quality of clinical care, Melgaard
said.
The report did not provide estimates on cases in Indonesia, but
Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari warned in November that
the country could see half a million HIV cases by 2010, and double that
if preventive steps are not taken.
At that time, estimates put the number of cases in a range of
169,000-216,000 in Indonesia although only about 7,000 full-blown AIDS
cases had been reported.
That represents an overall estimated HIV infection rate of about 0.1
percent of the population.