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Sexually transmitted HIV on the rise in Depok

The Depok HIV/AIDS Prevention Commission (KPA Depok) has revealed an increase in the sexual transmission of HIV, surpassing the use of contaminated syringes as the most common route of transmission in the municipality

Yuli Tri Suwarni (The Jakarta Post)
Depok
Sat, October 5, 2013

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Sexually transmitted HIV on the rise in Depok

T

he Depok HIV/AIDS Prevention Commission (KPA Depok) has revealed an increase in the sexual transmission of HIV, surpassing the use of contaminated syringes as the most common route of transmission in the municipality.

Commission secretary Herry Kuntowo said that sexual transmission was the cause of 62 percent of 188 cases recorded from January to August this year. '€œWe have also received reports from activists in HIV/AIDS prevention of 36 new cases and nearly all of them were infected through sexual transmission,'€ he said on Tuesday, adding that many of them were housewives.

The commission suspected the absence of a prostitution complex in the municipality had contributed to the situation. '€œThe sex workers work sporadically without monitoring or sufficient health education. It is impossible for activists to reach them because the sex workers move around to where the money is such as concerts and outdoor movie screenings,'€ Herry said.

He said the commission would establish community groups to support the campaign on HIV/AIDS awareness at district level to curb the transmission.

'€œWe have better surveillance now because of solid coordination between the administration and activists which has enabled us to detect new cases. However, we fear that the 36 new cases is the tip of the iceberg. That is why we need a program that can reach to the neighborhood unit [RT] level.'€

The commission had been in a hiatus for a couple of years, which disrupted the prevention and medication program for people living with HIV/AIDS. As a consequence many of them had to go to Jakarta for medication while others stopped taking medication altogether.

Mayor Nur Mahmudi Ismail of the Islamic-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), eventually reactivated the commission in the wake of media reports of children with HIV who were being denied access to healthcare at hospitals.

The municipality, however, is yet to include people with HIV/AIDS in its free healthcare program.

'€œWe are still talking to the Depok administration about removing the stigma that HIV/AIDS is a lifestyle disease so that those infected with the virus are somehow undeserving of free medication. How do they explain that to infected housewives and children? Most of whom come from the lower economic brackets,'€ said Radiaz Hages Triandha, activist with the NGO Kuldesak, which holds outreach programs for 45 people living with HIV/AIDS.

In dealing with the situation, he said, the organization had to persuade doctors to provide free medication to patients with HIV/AIDS without having to reveal their patients'€™ HIV status.

Irwansyah from Stigma, another NGO focused on HIV/AIDS prevention, said that the commission had to work fast to name a referral hospital for people with HIV/AIDS.

'€œThey are reluctant to go to public hospitals in Depok due to discrimination. They prefer going to hospitals in Jakarta or not going at all,'€ he said.

Herry said that the commission was still in talks to enable people with HIV/AIDS to get health checks at hospital without being coded to alarm doctors who might refuse to treat them.

'€œNot only that, we are still struggling to be allowed by the administration to conduct campaigns on safe sex,'€ he said.

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