300 Toddlers Infected With AIDS Every Year

"Landep News" 

There are approximately 150 thousand people suffer with HIV/AIDS in Indonesia. This equate to less than 0.06% of Indonesian population.

Though unreported cases my be close to twice the number, it is still a relatively small compare to say South Africa with population of less that 50 million and currently has 500 thousand new infection every year according to Robert Hecht, one of the managing director of the Washington-based Results for Development Institute, an organization that track HIV/AIDS infection in South Africa.

However, new data emerged from Bali National AIDS Commission (KPA) have shown a worrying trend amongst toddlers in Bali. Bali is one of the most attractive tourism destinations for foreigners in Indonesia and well known for its easy going and tolerance attitude towards foreigners. Bali has the most foreigners per population compare to other places in Indonesia.

The AIDS ribbon by originally by ChristianHeldt

KPA Bali has reported that some 300 toddler are infected with HIV / AIDS in Bali annually. This infection is usually contracted from either parent of the toddlers. The report showed around 1.2 percent of the approximately 56,000 pregnant women per year in Bali is HIV / AIDS positive.

KPA Bali spokesperson Prof. Nyoman Mangku Karmaya says that this problem has escalated into a pandemic.

“This is not yet an epidemic in general, because most of the mothers surveyed belong to a “high risk” group and not general population. Examples of people in this group are night clubs employee, mother with IDU (Injecting Drug User) husband and such.

Meanwhile, Board of Pengarah Kita Sayang Remaja (Kisara) Bali Dr. Oka Negara mentions that HIV / AIDS in Bali now increasingly become a concern because nearly 40 percent of the group who contracted HIV / AIDS consist of teenagers ages between 20-29 years.

“The infection rate is increasing in adolescent. Although the 20 to 29 years age bracket is the highest in the group, the overall teenager contracting the disease are still pretty high” said Oka Negara.

Alit Kusuma Kelakan from the House of Representative health commission says that the Government needs to develop a program for pregnant woman and abandoned children with HIV/AIDS.

“Research conducted in Jatinegara, Jakarta, shown that children aged 10 to 18 years have had unsafe practice because they live around red district that filled with shady characters. Its very unhealthy and made them an easy target for this disease, “said Alit Kusuma Kelakan.

Bali Health Office had shown around 7,000 people are currently infected with HIV / AIDS in Bali.
(VOA)

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