Civil servants with HIV/AIDS are being urged to have medical examinations and access treatment at the nearest health-care centers, an official said. Dr. Gede Agus Suryadinatha, head of HIV/AIDS and infectious diseases at Bali Health Office, revealed shocking data saying that the office had found 30 wives of civil servants had contracted HIV. “That was the finding in just one community health center,” said Suryadinatha. He was speaking at a seminar on HIV/AIDS prevention and protection for women and children in Denpasar on Tuesday morning.
“There are many people, mostly men, with HIV/AIDS in Bali who are still hiding. They refuse to open up about the real condition of their health, while passing on their deadly disease to their wives and children,” he said. The doctor also said that anybody could get HIV/AIDS regardless their gender, age, social status, ethnic or religious background, including civil servants. “The proof was finding the wives of these affected civil servants who are HIV positive,“ he said. According to data from the provincial commission on HIV/AIDS prevention compiled between 1987 and 2011, there were 4,464 people in Bali found to be infected, 392 of whom have died.
However, the actual number could be higher because many people were still unaware, unwilling to undergo or had no access to the appropriate tests. The number of cases in Denpasar reached 1,980, the highest of all regions, followed by Buleleng regency with 979 cases and Badung regency with 727 cases. Agus said that the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS was currently among men who had multiple sex partners outside their marriage, as well as men who had sex with other men. “Some new HIV/AIDS cases involved married men having sex with male partners,” he explained. The number of people in this group increased from five percent of the total number of people with HIV/AIDS in 2007 to 12 percent in 2011.
Until September 2012, the number of people with HIV/AIDS had surged to 6,700. Based on the office’s latest survey, around 80 percent of respondents already knew about HIV/AIDS and how it was contracted, yet only 33 percent of the respondents wanted to take preventive action. HIV/AIDS cases among female sex workers were also increasing. “In some ways, we have regularly educated the sex workers about safe sex and asking their clients to use condoms, but it is the clients who do not want to understand the danger of risky sexual behavior,” said the doctor, who is dedicated to working on analyzing risky behavior among men and women that is leading to an increasing number of people with HIV/AIDS in Bali.
He also warned people that 20 percent of sex workers in Bali had already contracted HIV/AIDS. Currently, Bali sees around 80 to 100 new cases of people with HIV/AIDS every month. “These numbers were obtained at official health care centers. We have no idea how many people remain undiagnosed and have not had a medical examination. There will be a lot more than the official numbers,” he warned. Dewa Putu Punia Asa, head of Bali Transportation, Communication and Information office, said that it was his agency’s responsibility to spread this important information to all people in Bali. “Civil servants and government agencies must be equipped with adequate information and knowledge on HIV/AIDS and the ways to prevent it from spreading,” Punia Asa said.
source : bali daily
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