The number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Jambi and Central Java provinces, especially in Banyumas regency, is rising at an alarming rate, according to HIV/AIDS activists.

The Orang Kito Information and Consultation Center (Sikok), a group concerned with HIV/AIDS issues in Jambi, recorded 341 infections in April, including 52 deaths from AIDS-related illnesses, compared with 314 infections in February this year.

"The data show us the number of people infected with HIV or those living with AIDS has increased steadily," said Sikok anti-HIV/AIDS coordinator Bastari.

He said 184 people had the HIV virus at the end of April, while the number of those living with AIDS stood at 105. Sikok recorded 176 HIV infections and 86 people living with AIDS in February.

"The number recorded in the past month was apparently much higher," Bastari said.

He said most of the cases, or 69.23 percent of the total, were detected in Jambi municipality, with the remainder in regencies across the province.

Bastari said those infected with HIV/AIDS were mostly injecting drug users who shared needles and those who engaged in promiscuous sex.

Sikok and the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) have been campaigning in schools and among the general public to raise awareness of the risk of contracting HIV through sharing needles.

"Prevention is necessary in order to deter others from becoming victims," Bastari said.

Banyumas regency has also recorded a rising trend in the number of people living with HIV/AIDS, attributing it to negligence on the part of the regency administration, a local activist said.

"The number of people with HIV/AIDS in the regency is increasing because the local administration tends to overlook the presence of brothels without taking effective measures to clamp down on them," leader of the Baturaden Tourism Community, Tekad Santosa, said in Purwokerto.

"Banyumas has the highest number of HIV/AIDS cases among the 35 regions in Central Java after the provincial capital Semarang."

He said illegal prostitution, widespread in a number of areas in Purwokerto and in the tourist resort of Baturaden, was a major cause of the spread of HIV/AIDS.

"There are two red-light districts in Baturaden with about 200 sex workers, not to mention massage parlors and star-rated hotels, which are all HIV/AIDS breeding grounds," Tekad said.

Tekad said the Banyumas administration had not taken a firm stance on prostitution.

"The administration is currently not aware of prostitution. It apparently doesn't want to recognize it, but allows it to operate," he said.

"Why don't they simply admit to it so special action can be taken?"

Tekad said individuals at the administration had likely turned a blind eye to the establishments because they wanted the money but did not want to take responsibility for it.

Head of the contagious diseases eradication and community health division at the Banyumas Health Agency, Supraptini, confirmed the number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the regency was rising.

The agency recorded 250 HIV/AIDS cases to June, more than double the 2007 figure of 112 cases.

Of the 250 cases, 192 people were detected as having the HIV virus and 58 were positively infected with AIDS. The disease has claimed the lives of 33 people in Banyumas over the past five years.

"We have made efforts for prevention by setting up three VCT (voluntary counseling and testing) clinics, one at the Baturaden tourist resort and two at the Margono Soekarto General Hospital in Purwokerto," Supartini told The Jakarta Post.

" We welcome sex workers who wish to have themselves examined, but most of them are ashamed to do so."

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