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eenagers and school students topped the list of the customers of the Karang Dempedan red light district in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), making them vulnerable to the spread of infectious sexual diseases, including HIV/AIDS, an officer said.

Quoting a survey, head of the National Family Planning Coordinating Agency (BKKBN) NTT office’s reproductive health section, Marianus Mau Kuru, said that teenagers and school students accounted for 30 percent of the red light district’s regular customers.

“Their ages range between 13 and 14 years. Some are school students. Others have dropped out of school,” Marianus said Saturday.

He added that promiscuous sexual attitudes had led to the high number of abortions among teenagers in the province and had increased the risk of HIV/AIDS infection.

Marianus said the same survey previously done by the National Commission on Child Protection in 33 provinces showed that 99.37 percent of junior and senior high school students experienced kissing, 62.7 percent of junior high school students had lost their virginity and 21.2 percent admitted to having had an abortion.

“Both the government and other components of the community therefore need to improve their control to help prevent teenagers from experiencing pre-marital sex that negatively impacts their mentality,” Marianus said.

NTT commission on HIV/AIDS’ program manager Gusti Brewon said that a free sex lifestyle had led to the birth of HIV-positive babies, some of whom were born out of wedlock.

According to Gusti, at present there are 1,335 HIV and AIDS cases in NTT. Some 330 people have died from the disease, including 40 babies under the age of five.

“Most of the babies with HIV in NTT are from poor families,” said Gusti, adding that they were spread in a number of regions, including Kupang, Atambua and Maumere.

Gusti also said that data collected from the 21 regencies/municipalities in NTT showed that only 120 sex workers contracted HIV/AIDS, while the figure among housewives reached 255 cases. “This shows that families, as a moral fortress, have fallen apart due to the free sex lifestyle engaged in by couples out of wedlock,” he said.