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Broken equipment halts Papua AIDS program
A program in Papua to prevent HIV-positive pregnant women from passing the virus to their babies has been halted because a device necessary for the treatment is broken
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A program in Papua to prevent HIV-positive pregnant women from passing the virus to their babies has been halted because a device necessary for the treatment is broken.
While the program was running at the general hospital in Jayapura, doctors were able to prevent four women with HIV/AIDS from passing the virus to their newborns.
Samuel Baso Maripadang, the head of the voluntary consulting and testing unit in the province, said recently the four babies tested negative for HIV.
He said tests on three other babies born to women who took part in the program were inconclusive, and the babies were still being monitored.
The women were administered antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to control the spread of HIV in their bodies, Samuel said.
The treatment was found effective, he said, adding, "The four babies are proof."
The treatment requires careful monitoring on the leukocyte content in the women's blood with the help of a device called a CD4 (cluster of differentiation 4).
However, the device broke three months ago, forcing the hospital to stop the treatment.
This is extremely concerning given the quick rise in the number of people with HIV/AIDS in the province, Samuel said.
Samuel, also head of the provincial health office, said there are 3,629 people with HIV/AIDS in the province, with the towns of Mimika, Merauke, Nabire and Jayapura reporting the most cases.
Each month, the general hospital in Jayapura sees 20 new HIV/AIDS patients, a drastic increase from the five new patients a month the hospital saw in 2003.
"What has disturbed us is that most of them are young, between 19 and 23 years old," Samuel said.
In February, the hospital treated a 12-year old boy with AIDS.
"He told us he had sex for the first time when he was only nine," Samuel said.
Unprotected sex has been blamed by most observers as the main cause of the rise in HIV/AIDS infections in Papua.
