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Healthy hobbies seen as HIV prevention
Encouraging married men to take up healthy recreational activities could be an effective way to prevent the spread of HIV through heterosexual intercourse, a minister says
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ncouraging married men to take up healthy recreational activities could be an effective way to prevent the spread of HIV through heterosexual intercourse, a minister says.
Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih said that new HIV cases in Indonesia continued to increase year to year despite ongoing efforts to combat the viral infections.
“Most of our HIV prevention programs have been prioritized for female commercial sex workers although in fact women within marriages or long-term relationships are at a greater risk of heterosexual transmission,”
Endang told a press conference.
According to the AIDS Prevention Commission (KPA), the number of people who contacted AIDS through injecting drugs was 16.3 percent of all total new cases in the second quarter of 2011, down from 54.42 percent in the same period of 2006.
However, the number of new AIDS cases through heterosexual transmissions reached 76.3 percent in the second quarter of this year, up from 38.5 percent in the same period of 2006.
“As a result, new AIDS cases from perinatal transmission in which mothers infect their babies continued to soar,” said Nafsiah Mboi, the KPA chairwoman.
New perinatal-transmitted AIDS cases reached 4.7 percent in the second quarter of this year, increasing from 2.2 percent in the same period of 2006.
The Health Ministry is ready to start implementing this year several pilot projects based around “healthy recreational activities” aimed at protecting male workers from HIV.
“We will involve entrepreneurs and private companies in the pilot projects in which they should prepare healthy recreation facilities such as gyms, sport clubs and outdoor activities,” said Endang, adding that the ministry would conduct the pilot projects in several regions outside Java.
In its Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Growth (MP3EI), the government has mapped out six economic corridors comprising Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Bali-Nusa Tenggara and Papua-Maluku Islands economic corridors.
The projects, which consist of about 38 projects with a total investment of Rp 250 trillion (US$27.44 billion), are hoped to attract many male workers from areas throughout the country.
“They will be prone to HIV infections and sexually transmitted diseases because most of them are still young, unmarried or leaving their wives at home. This will increase HIV incidence rates if we do nothing to prevent the infections and other sexually transmitted disease,” Endang said.
Supporting safe sex: A billboard promoting safe sex stands on Kuta Beach in Bali in this fi le photo. JP/Stanny Angga
The KPA data shows that as of June 2011, 35.1 percent of new AIDS cases in Indonesia occurred in women, increasing from 16.9 percent in the same period of 2006.
Currently, about 3.1 million men regularly have unsafe sex with commercial sex workers. Meanwhile, 1.6 million Indonesian women are prone to HIV infections through marriage with men who are at high risk of HIV infection. Infected wives would then be at risk of transmitting the disease to their babies.
As of Dec. 31, 2010, the majority of new AIDS cases in Indonesia were in housewives, reaching 2,160 cases, but only 457 involved commercial sex workers.
“We never expected to have so many cases,” said Nafsiah.
Endang said that many men were not aware that they could infect their wives.
The use of condoms in unsafe intercourse was under 30 percent in 2010. It has been estimated that rate of spread of the disease will only decrease if condom usage increases to 65 percent by 2014.
“If we can successfully reduce HIV infections among male workers, then we can hope that their wives won’t be infected and their babies will be free from the HIV as well,” she said.
As more than 80 percent of people with HIV and AIDS are aged between 15-49 years, the disease is the leading cause of death in the work place, said Evodia A. Iswandi, Indonesian Business Coalition on AIDS (IBCA) Country Manager.
She said many male workers working far from their families, such as in mines, plantations or at sea ports, had recreational sex.
“If we don’t offer them healthy recreation activities, then they will not be able to think beyond recreational sex. This should not happen,” she told The Jakarta Post.
