More health care for people with HIV/AIDS
The city administration is expanding health services in the city for injecting drug users (IDUs) and people living with HIV/AIDS.
About 30 Puskesmas or community health centers will provide service information, voluntarily counseling and testing (VCT), antiretroviral (ARV) medicine and methadone maintenance treatment.
Currently, these services can be found only at nine hospitals in Jakarta, which are often to far away for patients to reach.
The designated hospitals are Sulianti Saroso Hospital in North Jakarta, Tarakan and Dharmais Cancer Hospital in West Jakarta, Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital in Central Jakarta, Duren Sawit, Persahabatan and Sukanto Police Hospital in East Jakarta, as well as the Cibubur and Fatmawati hospitals for drug addicts in South Jakarta.
Three health centers in Jatinegara, Kramat Jati and Pulogadung — all in East Jakarta — already provide the facilities.
The provision of ARV medicine is expected to be a boon to people living with HIV/AIDS, as many would have previously found it difficult to travel to a distant hospital while seriously ill, Amala Rahmah, a technical officer with the Indonesia HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care Project (IHPCP) told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
IDUs will be provided with counseling to raise awareness of the risks of sharing needles while taking drugs. Methadone, a synthetic narcotic used as an oral substitute for heroin treatment of addiction, and sterile needles will be available at the health centers.
Amala said that drug users usually injected drugs together, sometimes up to six times day, often sharing needles with each other.
“Research has indicated that providing hygienic needles does not boost the number of drug users. The provision of needles is tantamount to the goal of condom distribution: harm reduction,” she said.
The project, which started in July and will run until June next year, is being financed by the city administration and IHPCP with money from AusAID, the Australian government’s overseas aid program. The city administration will spend Rp 1.1 billion (US$122,200), while the IHPCP grant is worth Rp 3.2 billion.
“Next year the administration will need more money from the 2007 budget for the program,” Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo said Wednesday at the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Jakarta’s Commission for HIV/AIDS Prevention, which Bowo heads, and the IHPCP, represented by Tim MacKay.
Between 1987 and June 2006, 3706 people living with HIV/AIDS were recorded in the capital, 369 of whom have died. Around 1,500 of those living with HIV/AIDS in Jakarta are injecting drug users.
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
