Dofa Fasila & Dessy Sagita – Health authorities have revealed a startling 31 percent leap in the number of recorded HIV/AIDS cases in Jakarta in 2011, which they attributed to greater public awareness and testing rather than to new infections.
The Jakarta AIDS Commission (KPAD) announced on Monday that it had recorded 5,650 HIV/AIDS cases during 2011, up from 4,318 in 2010.
KPAD head Rohana Manggala said that people between the ages of 25 and 44 accounted for 78 percent of all people living with HIV/AIDS, up slightly from 76 percent from the same period a year earlier.
Some 28 percent of the cases recorded came from East Jakarta, followed by West Jakarta (23 percent), Central Jakarta (20 percent), South Jakarta (15 percent) and finally North Jakarta (14 percent).
Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo, who attended the KPAD announcement, acknowledged that city authorities should do more to stem the rate of new infections.
"Based on studies, there are still many activities that we need to ramp up, including improving the quality of health services for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention," he said. "This is needed not just in Jakarta but also in other regions."
Fauzi added that the increase in the number of recorded infections presented a challenge to all Jakarta residents. "All sides, from the government to community organizations, must work together to help carry out HIV/AIDS mitigation programs," he said.
On Tuesday, John Aluwubman, head of prevention and promotion at the KPAD, told the Jakarta Globe that the jump in the number of recorded cases was likely due to greater public awareness of the disease and the presence of more voluntary counseling and testing centers across the city.
"The increase in a way shows us that the real extent of the problem is starting to become apparent, so we now have a better understanding of the real situation," John said.
He added that in the past few years, more people, particularly from groups considered high risk, had become more aware of the disease and were willing to get themselves tested.
It would nevertheless take a long time, he said, to comprehensively identify all the HIV/AIDS cases in Jakarta. KPAD previously estimated that the real number of people living with the disease in 2010 was around 36,000, far higher than the current official figure of less than 6,000.
"We're still looking for the rest," John said. "It's essential that we find them because they will need proper care and medication before it's too late."
He added that even though the increase could be attributed to a better detection system leading to more people volunteering to be tested, the KPAD and the city administration would still take the matter very seriously by running a series of programs and campaigns to continue to improve public awareness.
He acknowledged that one of the biggest challenges in tackling HIV/AIDS in Jakarta was the fact that sex workers, considered among the highest risk groups, were often powerless to force their clients to wear condoms, thereby putting themselves at greater risk of getting infected.
"Another difficulty is the message from conservative religious figures who equate promoting condom use with promoting sexual promiscuity," John said. "This group is extremely difficult to crack."
The Health Ministry is also working on a campaign to promote greater awareness, particularly among youths, with the aim of gradually introducing sex education and courses on HIV/AIDS into the national school curriculum.
Data from the Health Ministry's 2007 Basic Health Research that found that only 25 percent of Indonesians aged 15 to 49 years knew HIV was not transmitted by mosquitoes.