Indonesia: HIV/AIDS Cases Among Young People on the Rise

The number of young people with HIV/AIDS in Indonesia has soared in the past three years due to increasing IV drug use, activists say.

Joyce Djaelani Gordon, chair of Kita Foundation, and Sri Wahyuningsih, coordinator of Pelita Ilmu Foundation, are urging schools, parents and the government to help educate the youth regarding issues such as drug abuse and reproductive health to prevent the country from losing its young generation to the epidemic. "HIV has already infected those who are still young, creative and productive. I am afraid that in the next few years, youngsters will become a lost generation and only grandparents and grandchildren will survive," Joyce said.

"Young people are prone to HIV infection because they are not exposed to sex education despite the fact that they are already sexually active. Most of them are infected through needle and syringe sharing and through unsafe sex," said Joyce, who is a psychologist.

Joyce said that a preventive campaign targeting elementary school students and pragmatic intervention -- such as distributing condoms -- to people above age 12 would be effective in addressing the rise in cases of drug addiction and HIV infection among youngsters. "Pragmatic intervention programs are aimed at the public, especially to high risk groups, so they can attend counseling sessions and be well-informed about reproductive health, the use of condoms, safe needle and syringe use, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic," she said.

Sri said that peer education could be the best way to address the problems, since young people usually share their problems with their peers instead of their parents. She said that some 540 senior high school students in Jakarta had been trained and informed about HIV/AIDS prevention, reproductive health, and drug abuse.

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