The number of HIV-positive cases among university students has become a cause for serious concern in Jayapura, Papua, this year.
In October alone the Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) clinic of the Dian Harapan hospital, Jayapura, found 14 new HIV positive cases among university students.
“They were found among 30 people who came in for counseling here,” the clinic head Agus Adil told The Jakarta Post, on Thursday.
He said of the 14, eight were female and four were male students.
Agus also said that all of the 14 students had come from remote regions in Papua and were aged between 20 and 30.
The new cases, he added, had most probably been infected some five years ago, meaning that many of them were first infected by the virus when they were still teenagers.
“It is really deplorable that they were already infected by HIV when they were still very young,” he said.
He added that in the same month the clinic had witnessed the death of two university students as a result of the virus who had just graduated from their university.
What was also concerning, according to Agus, was the fact that most of the students got the infection from sexual activities.
“Some 95 percent of them got infected after having sex,” he said.
Agus further expressed concern over the fact that many of the HIV infected people, including the students, did not receive adequate medical treatment due to the lack of medical facilities and volunteers.
“All the reference hospitals for HIV patients in Jayapura have been overloaded with patients and many are not treated properly,” Agus said.
In Papua, according to Agus, there are 11 reference hospitals for people living with HIV/AIDS, many of which are located in Jayapura, the provincial capital.
In fact, he said, many of the infected people lived in remote regions that were not easy to access.
In the mountainous regions of Pegunungan Tengah, for example, where HIV/AIDS cases are rampant, there is only one reference hospital, which is in Wamena.
As a result, many people infected with HIV/AIDS in the regions are not receiving proper medication and treatment.
‘’Ideally, each regency/municipality in Papua should have its own reference hospital for patients with HIV/AIDS,” he said.
Dian Harapan hospital itself has been providing services for patients with HIV/AIDS through its VCT clinic since 2004. Since then, it has noted relatively steady increases in the number of HIV infections.
In 2004 it found five cases of HIV/AIDS. Over the years the figure increased to 48 in 2006, 56 in 2007, down to 44 in 2008, increased again to 74 in 2009 and reached 89 last year. As of November this year the hospital had found a total of 100 new cases of HIV/AIDS.
Some of the patients have died. Others have survived due to their perseverance in routinely taking medication.
“The conditions of many others are not known because they returned to their respective home villages and we lost communication with them,” Agus said.
He underlined the importance of the patients’ perseverance in taking ARV medicines to maintain their physical condition or even to get better.
Providing examples, he said that the clinic was successful in helping three out of seven HIV-positive
pregnant women it treated to give birth to HIV-negative babies because of their early visits to the clinic.
Agus expressed his hope that the regional administrations would pay serious attention to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in Papua. “Otherwise, generations of young people in Papua will completely vanish because of the virus.”
Papua has long been known for its high occurrence of HIV/AIDS cases. Unlike in other regions in the country, most of the cases in Papua are transmitted through sexual intercourse. Currently, Papua has some 10,500 cases of HIV/AIDS.