Indonesia criticized for inefficient AIDS campaigns

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Jakarata, Indonesia, December 1: Even as the world observes "World AIDS Day" today, Indonesian population is seen struggling with the government's unproductive outlook towards HIV, with the figures swelling each year. Recently, the government was criticized for its unworthy operations related to AIDS campaigns and has been asked to incorporate changes.

Samsuridjal Djauzi , chairman of the Association of Indonesian Physicians Concerned about HIV/AIDS, commented on the inefficiency of the government programs that aimed at promoting behavioral change.

Recent figures of HIV affected population in Indonesia are more than double from what were in 2002 - from120,000 to 270,000, says the association. The association explains that the Health Ministry figures are quite lesser than these, with an approximated death rate of 20 percent.

According to Samsuridjal, infected individuals are not aware of the gravity of the condition."The National AIDS Commission has so far focused only on campaigns for behavioral changes, like promoting condom use or safe sex and avoiding needle sharing among drug users", he said.

"In fact, despite the target of having 50 percent of high-risk people use condoms during sexual intercourse, only 20 percent do so. That’s also more or less the case with drug users," added Samsuridjal.

He believes that the goverment's "biomedical intervention" is greatly required as a defensive step towards curbing the virus spread. Promoting male circumcision can cut down infection risks by 60 percent, whereas another measure is to prescribe anti-retroviral drugs.

He feels that absence of synchronization within state institutions like the AIDS commission and the Health Ministry, is causing further troubles and creating nuisance with their "inefficient" and "overlapping" campaigns.

Activists are still struggling to encourage sterilizing needles for use, but they feel that the National Narcotics Agency needs to change its lax outlook towards drug users and must stop labeling them as just criminals.

Pandu Riono, head of the contagious diseases division of Indonesian Doctors Association, quoted that all suggested measures should be employed in combined manner to curtail the virus spread.

According to Riono, educating healthcare workers about the dealing with disease spread may help greatly. The infected cases must be urgently attended to and accessibility to the laboratory screening should be made easier.

Riono further noted that treatment should be made free only for the poor and no subsidized treatment should be offered to those who can really afford. The free treatment policy for HIV/AIDS sufferers has resulted in serious shortage of anti-retroviral drugs across 200 hospitals in Indonesia.

Samsuridjal says that the government perceives the funds released for treating patients as a "burden" rather than an "investment", which is the biggest ordeal. Foreign donors put in almost 70 percent of the HIV/AIDS treatment funds.

Globally, 33 million people are HIV infected, of which two million are children under the age of 15. Year 2007 registered about two million HIV-related deaths.