AIDS Commemorate

Today, all people in the world commemorate World AIDS Day. HIV has reportedly infected about 33 million people globally, two million of whom are children under 15. There were an estimated two million HIV-related deaths in 2007.

Indonesian government has been urged to change its “ineffective” approach to HIV/AIDS, as the number of people infected by the disease continues to grow each year. The association projects the number of people in Indonesia living with HIV/AIDS to more than double from 120,000 in 2002 to 270,000 this year. These figures are much higher than those reported by the Health Ministry, which put the number of cases at 18,000 as of September, with the death rate at 20 percent.
Chairman of the Association of Indonesian Physicians Concerned about HIV/AIDS, Samsuridjal Djauzi, said here Sunday the government’s current campaigns, which tend to encourage behavioral change, had proved ineffective in curbing the spread of the disease. He urged the government to start developing “biomedical intervention” as a preventive measure. Actions include promoting male circumcision, which he said could reduce the risk of infection by up to 60 percent, and the use of anti-retroviral drugs. Another problem is the lack of coordination among state institutions, including the AIDS commission and the Health Ministry, which resulted in “overlapping” and “inefficient” campaigns. Beside that, he add Institutions needed to change the attitude of the National Narcotics Agency, which still perceives drug users as mere criminals, thus obstructing activists’ attempts to promote the use of sterile needles. It will be a wish that the citizen has their own responsible to keep the health of their life. It is related to style of life. So it is about how we can grow their consideration about this disease.