Dessy Sagita – Efforts to curb HIV/AIDS transmission in the country are often hampered by religious leaders' lack of support and poor awareness of the disease, an official from the National AIDS Commission said.
"The prevention program among intravenous drug users has been quite successful, while transmission because of unsafe sex is increasing rapidly, partly because the religious community strongly rejects condom use," Nafsiah Mboi, the secretary of the National AIDS Commission (KPAN), said at a news conference on Wednesday.
She was speaking after the joint declaration with religious groups to support the government's efforts to curb HIV/AIDS transmission.
Religious leaders from the Protestant Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI), Supreme Council for Confucian Religion in Indonesia (Matakin), Nahdlatul Ulama National Board (PBNU) and Muhammadiyah attended the declaration.
Yanto, head of the East Java chapter of KPAN and who is also the head of East Java Mosques Council, said that most Islamic leaders in the province have poor knowledge about HIV, hence the strong rejection and stigma against people living with the virus.
"They don't know how it spreads. Once we taught them, they became more open and promised to stop treating people living with HIV and AIDS unfairly," he said. Yanto said his group plans to educate more religious communities about the disease.
Efforts to promote condom use have been strongly rejected by religious communities and their leaders. A few years ago, a program initiated by the National Family Planning Coordinating Board (BKKBN) to promote condom use in Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara by providing condom vending machines was scrapped after being rejected by religious society.
Sahawiah Abdullah, of the Ministry of Social Affairs, said the ministry has been receiving demands from religious leaders to shut down red-light districts.
"They didn't realize it's not that we are legalizing prostitution, but with red-light districts we can make it easier to control the spread of the disease. If they were closed down, prostitution would spread to regular community and be harder to control," she said.
Syafiq Mughni, head of health, social, and disaster for Muhammadiyah, said different approaches were required for those who were religious and those who were not to curb transmission.
"For those who are religious, we can use religious approach by telling them to stay away from sinful behaviors. For non-believers we should use a scientific approach and explain the danger of this disease," he said.