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Microchip me, microchip you, MPs told
People living with HIV/AIDS in Papua have said they will consider accepting a draft bill requiring them to be implanted with a microchip if the legislators pushing the bill agree to undergo blood tests and be similarly implanted if found to be infected, an organization said Thursday
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People living with HIV/AIDS in Papua have said they will consider accepting a draft bill requiring them to be implanted with a microchip if the legislators pushing the bill agree to undergo blood tests and be similarly implanted if found to be infected, an organization said Thursday.
“If it is the best solution for Papua, we will accept it on one condition. We will agree to be implanted with the chips once all of the council members agree to undergo HIV/AIDS tests as demanded by the bylaw.
“If they are declared to be infected with the disease, they will, together with us, be implanted with the chips,” said Enita T. Rouw, a representative of the Indonesian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Papua.
Enita also demanded all authorities in the province be tested for the disease and that their results be published. She said if there was no way to avoid the human rights abuse, at least it could be meted out equally.
“There is an extreme fear among the legislators. Meanwhile, HIV/AIDS does not infect arbitrarily: Only those who are promiscuous need worry,” said Enita, who was accompanied by three other people living with the disease.
Leny, who has just completed an undergraduate degree and who lost her husband to the disease, said she did not agree with the planned bylaw that would call on all Papuans to undergo HIV/AIDS tests.
“Are hospitals and paramedics ready to cope with an HIV/AIDS boom? In my opinion, the first step to be taken by the administration is preparing the medical workers and repairing the hospitals’ or clinics’ equipment before conducting massive HIV/AIDS tests,” Leny said, adding that she had once been tested for malaria at a hospital and that the medical staff had not been wearing gloves when they took her blood sample.
Siti Soltief, a paramedic at VCT Jayapura general hospital, said Papuan legislators were very anxious about the alarming rate at which the disease was spreading in the province.
According to the latest data, the number of Papuans living with HIV/AIDS has reached 4,141, the highest in the country.
Jayapura Support Group for HIV/AIDS activist Robert called on all HIV/AIDS-related NGOs not to be riled by the legislators’ proposal, who he said were most likely using the bylaw as a mechanism to attract voters in the lead-up to the 2009 legislative elections.
“If the legislators continue to promote the bylaw, we will file for a judicial review with the Constitutional Court,” Sihombing said.
Meanwhile, 174 people living with the disease in Central Java undergo routine checkups at Kariadi general hospital in Semarang.
The hospital’s internist Muchlis Achsan Udji Sofro said many of the people with the disease were housewives.
“There is an increasing number of housewives infected with the HIV/AIDS virus in this city, but we cannot disclose the number as we are not authorized to. We believe that they were infected by their husbands,” Muchlis said, adding that the administration had allocated Rp 470 million from its 2008 budget to pay for treatment.
“Because, if we do not help them, they have to spend Rp 600,000 each time,” he said.
“Many of them were infected with the virus through the injection of drugs and through sexual intercourse.”
