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Free condoms at 180 sites in Jayapura
Around 100 volunteers and social workers have been deployed to distribute free condoms in 180 known areas for sex transactions such as hotels, dormitories, rental rooms and on the streets in their efforts to slow down the rapid spreading of HIV/AIDS in the provincial capital and surrounding areas
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round 100 volunteers and social workers have been deployed to distribute free condoms in 180 known areas for sex transactions such as hotels, dormitories, rental rooms and on the streets in their efforts to slow down the rapid spreading of HIV/AIDS in the provincial capital and surrounding areas.
The secretary of the Papua AIDS Prevention Commission, Constant Karma, said in Jayapura on Tuesday that the move was aimed at moving condoms closer to where they are needed.
He said the volunteers and social workers have never forced but only offered condoms and the decision remained with sex consumers on whether or not to use them.
'The condoms are offered only to those exposed to a high risk of HIV infection because this is the only way to suppress the rapid spreading of the fatal disease in the province,' he said.
Constant, also a former deputy governor of Papua, revealed that the total number of people infected with AIDS in the province has reached around 19,000 since the virus was first detected in Merauke in 1992.
Separately, the head of the AIDS, TB and Malaria technical unit at the Papua Health Agency, Ni Nyoman Sri Antara, said that his office would involve both informal and religious leaders in their campaign for HIV/AIDS prevention in the province.
'Informal and religious leaders will be asked to play an active role in the campaign because most people, mostly those living in rural areas, have yet to learn about the fatal disease,' he said.
He said that based on a survey conducted in 2013, only nine out of every 100 people had a comprehensive understanding of the disease, how it is transmitted and how to prevent it.(+++)
