HIV/AIDS in Indonesia "Not Under Control," Virus Spreading Among Injection Drug Users, Commercial Sex Workers, WHO Says

HIV/AIDS in Indonesia is "not under control," and HIV transmission among injection drug users, commercial sex workers and heterosexuals in the eastern province of Papua is increasing, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, the AP/International Herald Tribune reports. Government officials estimate that up to one million people living in the country, which has an estimated 169,000 to 216,000 HIV cases, by 2010 could become HIV-positive. The Indonesian government in July created a National AIDS Commission whose mission is to "prevent having one million infected people by 2010," Nafsiah Ben Mboi, the Commission's secretary, said. According to Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari, increasing public awareness of HIV/AIDS is the biggest challenge to this goal. Recent Health Ministry data found that one third of the country's AIDS cases were contracted through heterosexual sex and that more than half of Indonesia's AIDS cases are among IDUs (AP/International Herald Tribune, 11/28).

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