Bangka Belitung Records 500 HIV/AIDS Infected Individuals
19 August 2014 17:28 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Vice Governor of Bangka Belitung is concerned that an estimated 500 people are suffering from HIV/AIDS in his province. According to him, as a newly formed province with a population of 1.2 million, 500 is quite a significant number.
"To prevent the number from increasing, we want public and religious figures to play a bigger role in disseminating information on the issue," said Hidayat at an AIDS workshop for religious leaders in Pangkalpinang on Tuesday, August 19, 2014.
The provincial government of Bangka Belitung will also cooperate with port and airport authorities to conduct health screenings on passengers arriving at Bangka Belitung's points of entry - including foreigners.
"As a mining region, Bangka Belitung is a magnet that attracts people from other regions in Indonesia, as well as from abroad," said Hidayat.
Hidayat suspects that some visitors had already contracted the disease at their points of origin, but it is at Bangka Belitung where they transmit the disease to others.
He vows to increase the budget allocated for the mitigation of HIV/AIDS in order to help stop the disease from spreading any further. "We need to act decisively as this concerns human lives. As the region's infrastructures improve, we have to keep a lookout for the social problems that come with it," added Hidayat.
An official with the National Commission for AIDS Haliq Siddiq said that the an alarming majority of the public in Bangka Belitung is still unaware of the dangers of HIV/AIDS. Nationally, the province is ranked fourth lowest in terms of public awareness of the disease.
"The number of sufferers is relatively low, but public awareness of the issue is extremely low. If this continues, the number of sufferers could possibly spike," said Haliq.
According to Haliq, advances in IT has allowed sexual transactions to proliferate in Indonesia - chiefly because it distances and/or removes the transactions from localisations to the internet and/or social medias.
SERVIO MARANDA