Seeing an increase in HIV cases in Jakarta, the city administration and the Jakarta chapter of the National AIDS Commission (KPAP Jakarta) are offering free, confidential HIV testing and counseling for a month from Tuesday to Nov. 21.

Teams manned by the Jakarta Health Agency and Commission staff as well as relevant NGOs will be deployed to provide a Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) program in public places, including shopping malls, targeting a wider section of the populace in the city'€™s five municipalities.

Free tests are already available at Puskesmas (community health centers) and state hospitals for the holders of the Jakarta Health Card (KJS). However, organized tests previously only targeted high-risk groups in red-light districts and drug offenders in prisons.

Jakarta Deputy Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama, who is KPAP Jakarta executive chairman, took the test on Tuesday to mark the launch of the program at City Hall.

'€œI am willingly taking the test now. Why don'€™t others take it too?'€ he said, calling out to the public and civil servants. '€œIt'€™s just like having diabetes. The sooner you know you have it, the easier it will be to be treated. It will turn to a life-threatening condition if HIV develops into AIDS.'€

The number of HIV/AIDS cases has increased over the years. Data from the National Commission on HIV/AIDS Prevention in 2012 showed Jakarta was the province with the most incidences of HIV/AIDS. KPAP Jakarta recorded 20,775 HIV cases in Jakarta in 2012, an increase of 9.3 percent from last year'€™s 18,999.

Meanwhile, the number of AIDS cases slightly increased from 5,117 in 2011 to 5,118 in 2012.

Jakarta Health Agency head Dien Emmawati said most of the new cases were found among non high-risk groups.

'€œAccording to our survey, sexually active heterosexual people topped injecting drug users as having the most potential to be infected,'€ she said.

KPAP Jakarta secretary Rohana Manggala said the VCT was intended to break the '€œiceberg phenomenon'€ where only an estimation of 40 percent of HIV cases had been revealed, suspecting that the non high-risk groups, including housewives and children, sat at the bottom of the iceberg.

'€œThe test aims also to eradicate discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS as the public in general can easily take the test, so people do not think it a curse or a disease of sinners,'€ she said, adding the program would increase the awareness of people toward HIV/AIDS.

Rohana said the commission targeted 10,000 people to take the tests in a month and planned to conduct the same program next year.

The health agency and the commission would upload the location of the mobile VCT teams at kpapjakarta.org.

Dien said the puskesmas also provided the same service for free but providing the service in public spaces would encourage more people to take the test.

'€œWe use the new HIV screening with Nucleid Acid Testing [NAT] method, which is more accurate,'€ she said, adding the result could be known in only 15 minutes.

It costs around Rp 300,000 (US$26.7) to take the test in private hospitals.

Dien said the VCT program was also crucial for pregnant women. '€œIf the mother is infected, she should take medication to reduce the risk of transferring the virus to the baby.'€

Ahok said the city administration was concerned more about low-income people who engaged in unprotected sex.

'€œMiddle- and upper-class people are usually aware of the risk of HIV/AIDS,'€ he said.

According to the provincial commission, among the HIV-infected are teenagers. However, in its survey revealed last year, only 21.7 percent of those in the 15-24 age group of respondents were well informed about HIV/AIDS and its prevention.

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