Sari P. Setiogi, Jakarta – The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) warned Indonesia on Tuesday that the virus was spreading rapidly among women and girls in the country.
The chair of the UN Theme Group on HIV/AIDS, Alan Boulton, said during the launch of AIDS Epidemic Update 2004 here that compared with five years ago, women and girls represented an increasing proportion of people living with HIV/AIDS.
"Research suggests that the main patterns for HIV transmission relate to the commercial sex industry and injecting drug use," said Boulton.
The research found that condom use here ranged from irregular to rare. This means that men who are married or in steady relationships who engage in sex outside of the relationship not only are at risk of contracting HIV, but also of passing it on to their wives and partners.
According to a senior consultant at the National AIDS Commission, Nafsiah Mboi, from July to September 2004, of 5,701 cases of HIV/AIDS reported in Indonesia some 21 percent involved women. The number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the country is between 90,000 and 135,000, according to UNAIDS.
In its latest epidemic report, UNAIDS said the fight against AIDS was at a critical stage in Asia after a sharp rise in infections driven by the booming sex industry had left more than eight million people in the region living with HIV.
Over one million people in Asia were infected with the virus over the past two years alone. The report said HIV rates also were rising sharply in Indonesia and other Asian countries like Nepal, Vietnam and China due to dramatic infection increases among injecting drug users.
"One in two injecting drug users in Jakarta now test positive for HIV, while in cities such as Pontianak [in West Kalimantan] more than 70 percent of drug injectors are being found to be HIV-positive," the report said.
Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Alwi Shihab said in a meeting that followed the launch of the report that many women living with HIV in Indonesia were unaware they had been infected with the virus. "Biologically and socially, women and girls are weaker than men and boys. Many of them are infected not because of their own lifestyle, but from their partners or someone else. A lot of them are ordinary, loyal wives," said the minister.
Boulton said the existing AIDS responses did not help women. "Services that can protect women against HIV must be expanded." Another speaker at the meeting, State Minister for Women's Empowerment Meutia Farida Hatta Swasono, said the promotion of the Abstinence, Be faithful or use a Condom (ABC) principle was not enough to reduce infection rates. "Premarital sex among girls has become more prevalent and they are doing it without any knowledge or access to HIV infection prevention," said the minister.
Meutia also said many young girls were forced into marriage in to support their families. "In many cases, they [the women and the girls] are not in a position to make decisions or protect themselves," she said.