D

ita, 28, fears she may be HIV positive after having unprotected sex, yet she doesn’t want to go to a clinic to find out as she’s worried about having to reveal her identity.

Because of the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS in Indonesia, Dita is not alone in being too afraid to be tested. While an estimated 300,000 Indonesians live with the disease, only 26,483 — or just 9 percent of the total number — know that they’re infected.

And the situation is expected to get worse as those already infected unknowingly infect others. Between 2005 and 2010, the number of known new infections doubled.

However, Dita is finding out her status, only she’s doing it online a via a web site called MauTau.com, where users receive free online counseling and take a test anonymously.

The site, which is the first of its kind in the world, may offer an alternative solution, but it doesn’t have the approval of the Health Ministry or the The National Aids Prevention Commission (KPAN), without which, it says, it will be unable to expand to reach more people.

Alita Damar, who founded MauTau.com three years ago after a close relative of hers died from the disease, says everyone should know their HIV status.

“The problem is one person doesn’t get tested, they don’t know that they have HIV and then they keep passing it on to other people. By the time they find out, they are already at a late stage,” she said.

After online counseling, tests are taken at a laboratory using an online user name. At present, there are only two laboratories — one in Jakarta and one in Bali — that have agreed to take on MauTau.com’s clients without the ministry’s support.

The Health Ministry’s HIV control director, Tony Wendra, understood that people were afraid to go to voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) clinics because of stigma, but said the ministry’s issue with the website was that patients were unable to sign their real names on informed consent forms.

“Of course, we will support [them], as long as they comply with our guidelines,” he said.

The secretary of KPAN, Dr Nafsiah Mboi, said the decision to support MauTau was not within her authority; however, she would do so as long as they fulfilled the ministry’s requirements. “We must use all possible means to help people find out their status,” she said.

The ministry’s guidelines were based on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) HIV-testing guidelines, but have been adapted by Indonesian experts to suit the conditions here, said Tony.