Widodo's health care reform must cover poor with HIV, protect youth

HIV/AIDS knows no boundaries. The virus spreads to every corner of the country, including Aceh, where sharia law takes effect and gives no room for promiscuity. It has infected people from all walks of life, including loyal housewives.

The constant rise of the number of people in Aceh infected with the virus over the past 10 years to a current total of 272 has shocked Hayati, a local female politician from the Muslim-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). We will all closely watch the statistics for HIV infections every time we commemorate the World AIDS Day on Dec. 1.

As of Sept. 30 of this year, HIV has infected 150,296 people in Indonesia, including 55,800 with AIDS, according to the Health Ministry. The virus has killed nearly 9,800 people since April 1, 1987.

What should give us cause for concern is the fact that citizens of productive age between 19 and 40 years old make up the majority of people with HIV/AIDS. More worryingly, though, there is a phenomenon in the pattern of the global spread of HIV that youths are becoming easy prey.

UNICEF data revealed that the virus claimed the lives of about 110,000 young people aged between 10 and 19 years old in 2012, up by 50 percent within only seven years. Indonesia must not be complacent about the trend, given a finding that the young generation in the country is mostly uninformed and, hence, unaware of HIV/AIDS despite a widespread campaign.

A Health Ministry study in 2010 discovered young people's poor understanding of reproductive health, especially when it comes to risky sexual behavior, prevention of unwanted pregnancy, perceptions about the dangers of the virus and stigmas embedded about people with HIV.

Such lack of knowledge, if not ignorance, comes on the heels of the mushrooming new values and easy access to drugs, which have given a boost to HIV spread. Without knowledge, youth are more vulnerable to HIV.

Youths account for one-fourth of the Indonesian population today and their bill of health will determine whether the country will profit from its demographic bonus in the next few decades.

It is therefore the responsibility of the state and society, including parents and NGOs, to protect the young generation. The initiative of the National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) to join the fight against HIV through educating youths is therefore worth merit.

No less challenging is the fact that many people with HIV live in destitution and therefore are deprived of access to antiretroviral medication, which has proven to improve the quality of life of those infected and help curb virus infection.

The Indonesia Health Card (KIS), launched by President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, should and could include poor people with HIV among its beneficiaries. There will be a question of moral hazard if the national medical program also covers people with HIV, but for the sake of our as well as our children's future, such a move will do more good than harm.

This is an editorial published by The Jakarta Post on Dec. 1.

source: http://www.chinapost.com.tw/