T

he Gunungkidul administration, Yogyakarta, has been urged to seriously deal with HIV/AIDS issues among teenagers in the region due to the increasing number of cases.

The Gunungkidul AIDS Prevention Commission (KPA), which was established only in July 2011, has recorded 57 cases of HIV/AIDS in the region so far.

This is considered alarming and believed to be the tip of the iceberg.

“The actual figure could be around 570,” the commission’s secretary, Iswandi, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

He added that the commission would find it difficult to establish the rest of the cases, arguing that no appropriate facility in the regency of some 700,000 people was present.

Ika Harmawati, director of NGO Kembang working on HIV/AIDS issues in Gunungkidul, blamed the condition partly on the free-sex lifestyles of teenagers in the region.

Lack of knowledge about the disease among this particular group of society, according to her, could lead to the high spread of HIV/AIDS in the regency.

“High mobility of the people of Gunungkidul working as migrant workers further increases the risk,” she said.

She added that indications of the free-sex lifestyle could be seen from the high number of forced marriages among teenagers due to pregnancies out of wedlock.

Data at the regency’s Religious Affairs Agency shows that there were 146 cases of forced marriages in 2011, while this year has seen 26 cases as of February. “It’s advisable that the Education Agency takes part in the prevention of the further spread of HIV/AIDS among school-aged teenagers,” Ika said.

Iswandi said that sex education that included HIV/AIDS had to be given to students as early as the fifth grade of elementary school, as during this period female students started to enter biological maturity.

“It’s unfortunate that we have not yet had a curriculum on sex education for fifth grade elementary school students,” he said.

So far, he added, the commission had been cooperating with the local education agency to provide information about HIV/AIDS to school headmasters as well as to high school students during their first year school orientation period.

He also saw the importance of providing workshops on HIV/AIDS to teenagers but said that the commission did not have the funds to do so.

Separately, the head of Gunungkidul Education Agency, Sudodo, said that knowledge about HIV/AIDS had been integrated into biology and natural science subjects, but was not thoroughly implemented.

“I think we need the involvement of all the stakeholders to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS in Gunungkidul,” Sudodo said.