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Jakarta Post

HIV/AIDS among housewives and children on the rise

Voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) clinics in state-run hospitals across the resort island have reported a disturbing development in the spread of HIV/AIDS

Luh De Suriyani (The Jakarta Post)
Denpasar
Fri, December 16, 2011

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HIV/AIDS among housewives and children on the rise

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oluntary counseling and testing (VCT) clinics in state-run hospitals across the resort island have reported a disturbing development in the spread of HIV/AIDS.

The reports say the number of new HIV/AIDS cases in the general population, in particular among housewives and children, has risen and eclipsed that of previous high-risk groups, such as homosexuals and sex workers.

“We have found this year that most of the new cases involve housewives and children. Similar findings have been found in other regional hospitals,” Wangaya hospital’s VCT clinic head Ketut Suryana said.

Wangaya is the regional hospital managed by the Denpasar municipality administration.

“In Wangaya, as many as 39 or 50 percent of newly detected cases were housewives and children, followed by men who have sex with sex workers with 35 new cases, injecting drug users (IDUs) with 5 cases and one case of a man who had sex with other men,” he said, adding that no new cases were reported among transvestites or sex workers.

For decades, HIV/AIDS experts across the globe have feared the moment when the deadly epidemic made the jump from high-risk groups, those severely hit by the disease in its initial rise, to the general population.

The detection of new HIV/AIDS cases was achieved through screening carried out on patients hospitalized in Wangaya, outpatients and patients referred to Wangaya by HIV/AIDS NGOs.

Suryana presented the disturbing findings during the first-ever Bali Annual Scientific Meeting for HIV and Opportunistic Infections, Dec. 14-15.

Organized by Sanglah Central Hospital, the island’s largest medical facility, the meeting was attended by dozens of physicians, health workers and VCT clinics’ staffs.

Wangaya’s VCT clinic now treats 36 children diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. To cope with the rising number of HIV-infected housewives and children, the clinic would soon launch a dedicated health program targeting children.

“We will also launch a health service designed to prevent mother-to-child transmission,” Suryana said.

Bangli regional hospital’s VCT clinic also revealed similar data, confirming that the disease had succeeded in making significant inroads into the general population.

Around 25 percent of new cases were associated with transmission by spouse. On the other hand, Sur-yana noted several improvements.

He pointed out that the public’s awareness of the disease had significantly improved. One parameter was the number of people who visited the VCT clinic, either to gain more information on the disease or to have themselves examined for it. Wangaya’s VCT clinic was officially opened in 2005 and was visited by only 32 people in that year. In 2006, 300 people visited the clinic.

“For 2011, up to November, the number of visitors has reached 3,446 people,” Suryana said.

Another good development, Suryana added, was in the level of the patients’ adherence to the medication regime prescribed by their respective physicians.

The participants agreed that several things must be done to improve the island’s overall response to the recent developments in the disease.

Bangli regional hospital’s VCT clinic head Made Dwija Suarjana suggested the government allow the clinics to provide and stock life-saving ARV (antiretroviral) drugs.

“In the existing scheme we refer the patients who need ARV to Sanglah Central Hospital,” he said.

Sanglah is a two-hour drive from Bangli. Moreover, the existing scheme makes it difficult for the clinic to monitor the patients who received ARV treatment from Sanglah.

From 1987 to November 2011 the cumulative number of HIV/AIDS cases in Bali has reached 5,222. As many as 423 people with HIV/AIDS have died. In 2011 there were 108 new cases.

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