Experts propose HIV/AIDS programs in the workplace

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Mon, 09/04/2006 7:01 AM

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Bogor, West Java

With an estimated 12 million working-age men regularly paying for sex in the country and most not using condoms, it is time for HIV/AIDS education programs in the workplace, experts say.

Data from the National AIDS Commission shows many employees are subject to infection due to their high-risk behaviors.

It says an estimated 10 million to 12 million Indonesian men regularly pay to have sex. The number of sex workers in the country are estimated at between 1 million and 1.5 million.

Sailors and fishermen most frequently use commercial sex workers, with 67 percent in the commission's survey admitting to doing so. Truck drivers come next at 48 percent, and civil servants in Papua and employees in the mining and forestry sectors are in third at 30 percent.

""If all of these men wear condoms, fine. But most are not,"" commission secretary Nafsiah Mboi told participants recently at a seminar on HIV/AIDS prevention in the workplace.

The nation also has an estimated 522,000 injecting drug users (IDUs) among whom the HIV/AIDS infection rate is high. Needle sharing contributes significantly to the spread of HIV/AIDS.

""Most of the IDUs are in the working age group, as are the people who buy sex. Over 80 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS are of working age. The workplace then is a strategic place and is a relatively easy reach for intervention programs to contain the virus,"" she said.

As of Sept. 30 last year, official statistics showed 4,065 people were recorded as HIV-positive in the country and 4,186 people had AIDS-related illnesses. Local and international organizations, however, estimate that the actual number of people living with HIV/AIDS is between 90,000 and 250,000.

The easternmost province of Papua, with a population of only 2.5 million people, has reported at least 932 cases of AIDS. That puts the reported case rate at 40 per 100,000 people, or 20 times higher than the national average.

By 2010, it is estimated that from one million to five million Indonesians could be infected with HIV/AIDS.

The commission's M. Nasser says companies could help stem the spread of the virus if they began HIV/AIDS prevention programs in the workplace. These should focus on companies with a majority of male employees, who often leave home for a long periods of time or work in isolated areas in mining and plantation jobs.

Nasser said HIV/AIDS programs in the workplace should include education and information distribution, access to voluntary counseling and testing, support treatment, insurance and guarantees of confidentiality.

Galuh Sotya Wulan from the International Labor Organization national HIV/AIDS program said the Sentani Commitment to Manpower and Transmigration as realized in a 2004 ministerial decree set out guidelines for HIV/AIDS prevention and control in the workplace.

""But implementation in the field is severely lacking and uncoordinated."" People with HIV/AIDS are still afraid to reveal it because they will face discrimination and stigmatization in the workplace, Galuh said at the seminar.

Many government offices, the military and police conduct mandatory HIV testing to screen employees and potential migrant workers, Galuh added.

""Testing should be voluntary and confidential. To hold such testing in order to support employees is fine, but not if it aims to screen employees.""

Most work and private insurance plans here exclude HIV/AIDS patients from coverage, unlike in Thailand where the government offers extra support for people living with the virus.

""Companies here often say (there is no need for HIV/AIDS programs) because the situation is not like in many African countries where 40 percent of the population are infected.

""But Indonesians have high-risk behaviors, so we must respond quickly,"" Galuh said.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.