A newly passed ordinance on the prevention and mitigation of HIV/AIDS will benefit NGOs campaigning for harm reduction and condom use among high-risk communities, a forum heard Wednesday.
"This ordinance will provide legal support for our activities among high-risk communities -- such as sex workers -- and at high-risk locations, such as brothels and certain spas, karaoke lounges, and massage parlors," Imam Mulyadi, chairman of Greater Jakarta's NGOs Forum Care for AIDS, said at a public meeting.
Before the ordinance was passed by the City Council on July 14, most NGO workers had difficulty distributing condoms and sterilized needles to drug users, Imam said.
Aside from methadone use, distribution of sterilized needles is the most effective harm-reduction treatment, he added.
About 70 percent of those infected with HIV/AIDS in Jakarta contracted the disease through contaminated needles.
"Some NGO officers have even been arrested by police for distributing needles, as they were suspected of being drug users or dealers," Imam said.
"Arrests of this kind are still happening," he said, adding some NGOs have begun handing out copies of the ordinance to police stations in Kemayoran and Kampung Bali in Central Jakarta and Tebet in South Jakarta.
Participants at Wednesdays's discussion expressed concern over the absence of articles in the ordinance explicitly supporting harm-reduction methods.
The chairwoman of the Jakarta AIDS Mitigation Commission, Rohana Manggala, said she hoped explicit references to such methods would be added to the ordinance's more operational gubernatorial decree.
"Hopefully, the decree will be completed in September.
"We hope to have 11 state-owned hospitals and 44 Puskesmas (community health centers) as HIV/AIDS referral sites by the end of the year," she added.
There are currently 33 such community health centers and eight such hospitals in the capital, including Dharmais, Persahabatan, Tarakan, Duren Sawit, Sulianti Saroso, Koja, Fatmawati and Polri hospitals.
According to Imam, referral hospitals still have low capacity for receiving HIV/AIDS patients, on average.
"They usually prefer receiving HIV/AIDS patients that come in with an NGO worker because they need help providing counseling to patients."
"If HIV/AIDS patients receive medical treatment sooner rather than later, their life span can increase by as much seven years," Imam said, adding patients in Jakarta without access to proper medication usually live for two years.
According to the ordinance, every health service provider must provide care to patients with HIV/AIDS without discrimination. Violators face up to three months in prison and/or a maximum fine of Rp 50 million.
As of July, there were 3,761 recorded cases of HIV/AIDS in the capital, with 446 related deaths as of June, making Jakarta the province with the largest number of HIV/AIDs-related fatalities in the nation.
HIV/AIDS incidence in Jakarta is 34.27 persons per 100,000, the second highest after Papua province, where the comparable rate is 81.02.
The Jakarta administration has allocated Rp 19 billion for HIV/AIDS prevention and mitigation, including Rp 12 billion for rehabilitation and therapy, Rp 2 billion for promotion and prevention, Rp 2 billion for monitoring and evaluation and Rp 3 billion for routine expenses.
Jakarta will have an estimated 16,000 HIV/AIDS cases by 2010, with the administration required to spend a projected Rp 289 billion on prevention and mitigation programs.
At the meeting, the City Council's Igo Ilham from Commission E on social welfare said, "Prevention principles -- such as abstinence, fidelity to a legitimate spouse and the use of infection prevention tools -- must not be forgotten."
