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t least seven families with HIV/AIDS-infected members in Buleleng regency have lost their chance to continue their family lines.

The families lost 3-4 members, including babies and children, to the deadly infection, thus, sharply minimizing or completely destroying the family’s chance to survive as a unit into the future.

“There might be more than seven families. This is only the tip of the iceberg,” the regency’s health agency head Made Pustaka said Sunday.

He said there were almost 900 people living with HIV/AIDS in the regency.

The continuation of the family line is very important in Bali. Folklores and spiritual treatises detailed how an heirless family would be haunted by unfortunate incidents in this world and the afterlife. One treatise narrates that the soul of a man begged his living son to get married and produce a grandson. Without the existence of a grandson, the soul of that man could not find his way to heaven.

The family’s oldest grandson is tasked with guiding the soul of his grandfather or grandmother during the cremation ceremony.

That is also the reason why celibacy has never been a popular concept in Bali. “For a Balinese family, the possibility of having no heir, no descendant, is truly terrifying. And that possibility is real and imminent,” he added.

“The main cause of the virus transmission is heterosexual intercourse, particularly from husbands to wives, then to their children,” he said, adding that the agency is targeting to identify HIV/AIDS patients as many as possible to cut off the transmission.

Pustaka said all institutions had agreed to abolish discrimination, including community health centers that had committed to treat HIV/AIDS patients equally, providing them counseling and referrals.

“Public order officers carrying out raids in red districts have also agreed to support HIV/AIDS treatment, including not evicting infected people from red districts.”

I Made Efo Suamiartha, director of Citra Usadha Indonesia, a foundation that has been conducting an AIDS programs in Buleleng regency for dozens of years, said the focus of the program was to encourage patients to share.

“The patients should be open to their families, so that families can support them in treatment. We don’t want any of them to commit suicide like those who did in Buleleng,” Efo said.

This year’s program is focusing on homecare training, in which 15 personnel from the foundation are trained to treat the patients at home, under the program funded by Global Fund and the HCPI. Some families assisted by the Maha Bhoga Marga foundation are also facing the threat of losing their children.

For instance, Merta (41) a fisherman from Selemadeg, Tabanan. Three of five members of Merta’s family have tested positive to HIV, including his youngest son who passed away when he was only two years old. Merta was the first person in that family to contract HIV.