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akarta Health Agency is ready to provide free health services for people with HIV and AIDS in community health centers (Puskesmas) and hospitals across the city, part of the newly launched Jakarta Health Card scheme.

The agency’s program manager for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, Dicky Alsidik, said on Friday that the city administration would cover all expenses of all HIV/AIDS-related medical services including voluntary counseling and testing, methadone therapy and prevention of mother-to-child transmission.

“HIV positives who don’t have the card yet can still get the free services by showing their ID cards or family cards,” Dicky told reporters.

In November, Jokowi launched the Jakarta Health Card to allow city residents access free medical services at community health centers and hospitals.

By 2013, about 4.7 million Jakartans are expected to hold the cards.

There have been at least 6,300 AIDS cases and 20,000 HIV cases in total since 1987.

There were around 650 new recorded HIV/AIDS cases in the capital from January to September this year with a death toll of 168. “The number is actually a lot higher, because so many HIV positives haven’t reported their status,”
Dicky said.

In the central and southern part of Jakarta, HIV transmission is mainly from intravenous drug uses, while in eastern, western and northern part of the capital, transmission is mostly through unprotected sex.

The Jakarta AIDS Prevention Commission spokesman Arita Herawati said the trend of transmission was shifting from narcotic use to unprotected sexual activity.

A huge number of housewives and babies have become infected by the virus as a result of their husbands’ sexual habits.

“The spread of the HIV virus no longer among prostitutes and drug users. Even housewives are highly susceptible to infections carried by their partners,” Arita said.

Arita believes that the spread of the virus among housewives was caused by the fact that condom use was still low, especially among prostitutes in the poorest parts of the city.

“Only around 17 percent of sex workers in the city use condoms. We want to raise awareness of how important it is for them to use protection when working, to help stopping the spread,” she added.

The commission recorded a total of 78 new HIV/AIDS cases in pregnant women in Jakarta from January to September this year, about 12 percent of the total.

The commission also recorded that a total of 5,555 HIV/AIDS cases were found among housewives and babies last year, up from 4,282 cases in 2010.

Jakarta ranks number one in HIV/AIDS cases, followed by Papua and East Java.

Because of low understanding and high social stigma, only 5-10 percent of Indonesian living with HIV/AIDS actually get diagnosed and treated. (nad)