TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Central Java branch of Indonesia’s Family Planning Association (PKBI) has said that around 10 percent of AIDS patients in the province are in their teens.
“As per December 31, 2014, we have recorded 3,852 cases of AIDS in Central Java,” said Elisabeth Widyastuti, PKBI’s executive director for Central Java, in Semarang on Monday. However, Widyastuti believes that this may only be the ‘tip of the iceberg’, as many HIV/AIDS cases go unreported.
Based on their data, the age of AIDS patients in this demographic range from 10 to 24 years old. Currently, there are 3,852 reported cases of AIDS, while 4,472 people have tested positive for HIV -- 889 of which have died from complications from the disease.
In 2010, 373 people tested positive for HIV, while 501 new cases of AIDS were recorded. The number increased in 2011 -- 756 people tested positive for the virus, while 521 cases of full-blown AIDS were reported. The number eased in 2012, when 607 contracted the immunodeficiency virus, while the number of individuals living with AIDS increased to 797.
However, the data is not a cause for celebration -- as in 2013, the number of people infected with HIV spiked to 1,219, and PKBI recorded 1,063 cases of individuals living with AIDS in Central Java.
Although the majority of the patients have only recently been infected, some of the patients have lived with the virus for a while, without knowing that they have contracted the disease.
HIV/AIDS is most commonly reported among young adults aged 25 to 29 years old, with 21,9 percent of all recorded cases. However, evidence indicates that most of these individuals were infected between the age of 3 to 10, or during their teenage years.
“HIV/AIDS is prevalent among adolescents and young adults because their age group is most prone to drug abuse and are most likely to engage in unprotected sex,” said Widyastuti.
ANTARA | ZUHDIAR LAEIS | ADE MARBOEN
