No District in Lampung That is Free from HIV/AIDS

Bengkulu, Indonesia (News Today) - The case of HIV/AIDS has spread evenly in all districts in Bengkulu Province, the director of Kipas Foundation, Merly Yuanda, said here Tuesday. HIV infected people can be found in 10 districts, she said, adding her organization’s latest finding was that there were 11 infected people in Muko Muko district.

According to Merly, there are 459 HIV infected people in Bengkulu Province as per August this year and 9 of them had died. Meanwhile, the secretary of Lampung province’s HIV/AIDS Prevention Commission, Arna Maretha, said the HIV/AIDS sufferers were to be found in all of Bengkulu Province’s districts.

"There is no district in Lampung province that is free from HIV/AIDS. This condition is making us work very hard to establish local AIDS prevention commissions in all districts," she said.

The condition also demanded all-out efforts by the officials coordinated by the commission to prevent the further spread of the deadly disease. The commission had so far established HIV/AIDS prevention commissions in 10 districts, Arna said, adding that by having a commission in district, efforts to prevent the disease at district level could be made optimally.

The commissions were set up in Bengkulu city , North Bengkulu, Mukomuko, South Bengkulu, Kepahiang, Lebong, Rajang Lebong, North Bengkulu, Seluma and Kaur districts. The commission would develop a program mainly emphasizing the danger of drugs and how it correlated with HIV/AIDS.

"We get much support from the district administrations in the establishment of commissions in each district so that the AIDS prevention efforts can be carried out together," she said.

She said the spread of HIV/AIDS in Bengkulu based on data collected in 2003-2009 was very worrying.

"There were 4 suffers in 2003, 2 in 2004, 9 in 2005, 28 in 2006, 22 in 2007, 44 in 2008, and 56 in 2009," she said.

The commission had found that most HIV/AIDS suffers had contracted the disease through sexual intercourse, especially with prostitutes. Fighting drug was easier than HIV/AIDS transmission through sexual intercourse as people who had engaged in high-risk sex could not be identified physically. Yet, sexual intercourse had become the main way of HIV/AIDS transmission, she said.

Source : kompas

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