Banjir Ambarita, Jayapura – The total number of reported cases of people living with HIV/AIDS in Papua has topped 13,000, with 150 of the new cases involving infants below the age of five years who contracted the virus from their parents.
"There are 150 infants who have positively contracted HIV in the province," Josef Rinta, the head of the Papua Health Office, said on Monday. "They are spread across several areas in Papua and they contracted the virus from their parents."
He added that some of the infants had gone on to develop full-blown AIDS. "Once it [develops into] AIDS, it will ruin their immune system," he said.
Josef said most of those living with HIV/AIDS in Papua were in their productive age. "Eighty percent of them are aged between 15 and 40 years old," he said.
He attributed the high prevalence of infections in the province to unsafe sex practices.
"Ninety-eight percent of the [people who contracted the] deadly virus got it because they have multiple sexual partners and don't use protection when having sex," Josef said.
"Men in Papua tend to be highly mobile so it's difficult to reach out to them and raise awareness about the dangers of HIV/AIDS."
The health office continues to run campaigns to promote awareness about the virus to curb the number of transmissions. However, it said it was facing geographical challenges in reaching out to a wider number of people.
"In this program, we're having trouble detecting [the people contracting HIV] in remote areas due to the difficulty in accessing those areas," Josef said.
Australia has provided A$25 million ($26 million) in assistance to help Indonesia improve access to HIV services in the provinces of Papua and West Papua, embassy officials said in August.
The aid is part of a A$100 million HIV six-year partnership commitment between Australia and Indonesia that started four years ago. The embassy said the Australian government, through its aid program AusAID, had been combating HIV with the Indonesian government in Papua and West Papua since 2004.
The new Rapidly Expanding Access to Care for HIV (Reach) program will build on the success of existing partnerships, an Australian official said.
The government and United Nations officials are also focusing their efforts in the fight against AIDS, ensuring no Indonesian child is born with HIV.