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"HIV gaining ground fast in Indonesia"
The
Star (www.thestar.com.my)
(18/02/07)
JAKARTA: Indonesia has one of the fastest-growing HIV populations in Asia,
officials said yesterday, as they launched the results of a World Health
Organisation review of the epidemic.
I Nyoman Kandun, director general of the health ministry's contagious
diseases department, said HIV was spreading swiftly among high-risk groups
and in certain parts of Indonesia where healthcare is lacking.
“In the past few years there has been an increase in the number of cases
among high-risk populations in Indonesia,” he told an audience of health
ministry officials and journalists.
“The epidemic has spread swiftly among injecting drug users, transsexuals
and commercial sex workers, from and to their clients.”
The review, jointly organised by the health ministry and the WHO, found HIV
infection rates in the easternmost province of Papua were more than 20 times
the national average.
A recent health ministry survey showed that more than 2% of the population
of Papua is infected with HIV.
Officials in Indonesia have previously warned that a million people will be
infected with HIV by 2015 if more is not done to tackle the problem. — AFP
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