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Men must be educated about virus transmission
Despite the alarming growth of HIV/AIDS cases in the city, the Jakarta AIDS Prevention Commission (KPAP) said the virus was still concentrated on vulnerable groups, including sex workers, homosexuals and intravenous drug users
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espite the alarming growth of HIV/AIDS cases in the city, the Jakarta AIDS Prevention Commission (KPAP) said the virus was still concentrated on vulnerable groups, including sex workers, homosexuals and intravenous drug users.
Commission head for the monitoring, evaluation and development unit, John Alubwaman, said that 55 percent of HIV-positive individuals were infected through the use of non-sterile syringes, while the remainder caught the virus through unsafe sex.
'Compared to last year the number of sexually transmitted cases increased by 15 percent,' John said on Thursday on the sidelines of a HIV/AIDS campaign for teenagers teleconference held by the Health Ministry nationwide.
The city health agency recorded 6,837 cases of HIV/AIDS in 2012, 33 percent of these cases were transvestites who engaged in unsafe sex and another 30 percent were heterosexual men associated with prostitutes. The remaining cases refer to men who have sex with men and cases of women with the virus .
There were 693 HIV/AIDS cases found in women, 345 of whom were housewives, infected by their husbands. Twenty babies were born with HIV/AIDS last year.
A member of the assistant team for KPAP, Maya Trisiswati, said that education and HIV/AIDS prevention would be more effective should the target shifted to men.
'We should inform hospitals and health clinics that if they find mothers with HIV/AIDS to ask their husbands to go for HIV/AIDS education,' said the physician.
To help reduce mother to child transmission, the KPAP would also educate infected mothers about safe birth procedures and promote the consumption of antiretroviral drugs.
'Women should realize that there still a chance their babies would be free from the disease if they used the right medical treatment,' she said.
The KPAP would also push the city administration to penalize those who refuse to use condoms while associating with prostitutes.
'We have identified some red-light areas where we will focus our condoms campaign on men,' Maya said. (tam)
