Dewi Santoso, Jakarta – With HIV/AIDS emerging as an increasingly ominous threat, the government appears to lack concrete plans to fight the virus, non-governmental organization activists and a legislator have said.
Indonesian AIDS Foundation (YAI) chairman Sarsanto W. Sarwono said that thus far the government's commitment to combating AIDS had consisted of nothing more than words. As a consequence, he said, public awareness of the dangers of the virus remained low.
"People still consider AIDS to be a personal problem. They don't realize that the virus can infect almost everybody, whether they are members of a high-risk group or not," he said.
Ministry of Health figures reveal that from 1987 to Sept. 30 this year, there were 3,924 people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Indonesia, of which 2,685 are HIV positive and 1,239 have full-blown AIDS. A total of 428 people have died of the virus. In a UNAIDS report, however, the estimated number of PLWHA in Indonesia is given as 130,000.
"Within 10 years, these 130,000 PLWHAs will definitely get full-blown AIDS and will need treatment. If no action is taken, the number will just get bigger and bigger," Sarsanto told The Jakarta Post.
Chris W. Green of the Spiritia Foundation said the government appeared not to be prepared to accept the responsibility for pursuing the fight against AIDS. "There are 10 Voluntary Counseling Testing (VCT) centers in the Greater Jakarta, plus at least one VCT in each provincial capital. But the government hasn't been promoting these among the public," said Green.
Sarsanto said that the absence of a dedicated government campaign against the virus had led the public to believe that HIV/AIDS was sexually-transmitted only. "For the past two years, our survey shows that 44 percent of PLWHAs were infected through the sharing of drug syringes. Before this, the proportion was less than 10 percent," he said.
Another study conducted by the Aksi Stop AIDS group disclosed that in Jakarta alone around one out of every two injectors was infected with HIV and around 90 percent were sharing needles.
eputy chairman of the House of Representatives Commission VII for population and welfare affairs, Surya Chandra Surapatty, joined the chorus of criticism, suggesting that the government raise public awareness of HIV/AIDS to a higher level. "The government's effort to promote the fight against the virus has not been effective. It still considers AIDS to be a moral issue, whereas the fact is that AIDS can infect anybody, not only through sexual activities," said Surya.
The activists also said that religious institutions shared the blame for the country's ineffective campaign against AIDS. "We have introduced ABC (Abstinence, Be faithful, Condom) programs. For the first and second programs, there was no problem. But when it came to the third program, the religious leaders opposed it, saying it was like promoting extramarital sex," Sarsanto said.
He said these religious leaders perceived HIV/AIDS as a matter of sinfulness. "This is a totally wrong perception," he said, giving the example of a housewife infected with HIV/AIDS by her husband. "The wife never have extramarital sex. She was infected with the virus, so were two of their children. What kind of sins have she and her children committed?" he asked.
As part of the national commemoration of AIDS Day, President Megawati Soekarnoputri is scheduled to deliver a short speech on December 5 and spell out the details of a government promise to subsidize antiretroviral drugs so that the cost can be reduced from Rp 650,000 (US$76.47) to Rp 450,000 for one month's supply. Indonesia used to import the drugs from India, but this has been stopped as an international agreement says that they drugs can be produced by any country provided they are not exported.
The president director of pharmaceutical firm PT Kimia Farma, Gunawan Pranoto, said his company, a licensed manufacturer of the drugs, was still waiting for approval from the Indonesian Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) to start producing the life-saving drugs.