Local News

HIV/AIDS Patients in Bali May Exceed 7,000

The National Commission on HIV/AIDS Treatment (KPAN) and the Health Ministry estimates that the number of people living with HIV/ AIDS in Bali as of this year has reached 7,317 people, mostly sex workers. The 3,017 patients said to have contracted HIV/AIDS from sex workers were feared to have transmitted the deadly infection to their partners and children, with the estimated number of this group reaching 668.

“The number of partners infected with HIV is increasing drastically. This should be seriously anticipated,” said a local HIV/AIDS activist Putu Utami. Injecting Drug Users (IDU) are the second largest group of people living with this infection, totaling 1,371 patients.

In the latest report by the Bali HIV/AIDS Commission published Saturday (15/5), the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among IDU, sex workers and their customers and partners, as well as transvestites and prisoners, is increasing.

Children are excluded from the report despite the high occurrence of HIV/AIDS among the group, which reached at least 100 patients as estimated by the Kerthi Praja Foundation (YKP) and the commission. As of April, the Bali Health Agency recorded there were nearly 4,000 HIV/AIDS patients in the province, 70% of which were infected through heterosexual intercourse and 22% being IDU.

HIV/AIDS researcher Dewa Nyoman Wirawan said the KPAN estimation was reasonable, considering the prevalence of HIV-

positive cases among sex workers had reached 22%, based on the latest survey result by the health agency. On January 2007, the Bali HIV/AIDS Commission estimated that the number of infected people in Bali had reached 4,041.

“Now the number has almost doubled. It’s a really huge increase,” said Wirawan, who assists HIV/AIDS patients through the YKP he established in Denpasar. He said the treatment of HIV/AIDS cases in Bali was now focusing on the prevention of sexual infection and PMTCT (the prevention of mother-to-child transmission).

This method is expected to minimize infection in newly born infants of HIV-positive mothers. According to WHO, there is a 5 percent possibility that a mother transmits the infection to her child during the pregnancy period, a 15 percent possibility when the mother delivers the baby and a 10 percent chance through breast-feeding.

Areas with the highest prevalence are Denpasar, Badung, Buleleng and Jembrana, the report said. Forty-six percent of the patients are those aged between 20 to 29 years of age, while 36 percent are aged between 30-39 years.

HIV/AIDS cases in Bali also occurred in foreigners. In 1987, when cases were diagnosed in Bali for the fi rst time, there were six patients from The Netherlands, fi ve from the US and four from East Timor. (May 17th

2010, the Jakarta Post)

HIV and a Lost Generation: 1,24% of Pregnant Mom’s HIV Pos in Bali

An explosion of HIV within the general public could stop Indonesia’s millennium development goals (MDG’s) on child mortality in its tracks, and threatens a “lost generation”. A recent HIV screening study of 403 pregnant women drawn from the general public in Bali showed 1.24 percent of the women were HIV positive; and they did not know it.

Dinar Lubis of the Kerti Praja Foundation, which has worked with HIV and AIDS patients since 1992, says this fi gure is “really serious”. “If this fi gure of 1.24 percent extends over the whole Bali population, we have a huge problem.

While 1.24 percent may appear negligible, Lubis explains the actual fi gure becomes signifi cant when extrapolated across the general population. “The study was done only by private midwives, not in public hospitals. I was really surprised by the data that’s really high. It means that out of 56,000 women who would become pregnant in Bali in a year, 670 would be HIV positive. That means between 225 and 335 babies would be born HIV positive,” explains Lubis.

Consultant pediatrician Ketut Dewi Kumara Wati of the Allergy Immunology Section, Child Health Department Sanglah Hospital/ Medical School of Udayana University, Denpasar, is deeply concerned about the results of the HIV screening study; it represents a quantum leap in HIV positive mothers and the potential for babies born with the disease.

“The fact that I don’t know where the 300 babies live or where they go to seek help means we may not able to identify them,” says Dewi in an email, pointing out that if HIV positive pregnant women receive preventative treatment during pregnancy, at birth and during breast feeding, risks of infection to their babies drop from up to 65 percent to just 1 or 2 percent.

Dewi adds HIV is a mobile disease. “HIV infection affects various parts of society. It affects people from villages who come seeking jobs in “richer” areas, in Bali, mostly in tourism areas. These people are far from their families, and when they return to their villages, they transfer the disease to their partners who really have no idea about HIV or the impact of its infection, explains Dewi.

Telling a new mother her child is HIV positive is a gut wrenching experience for Dewi who to date has worked with 142 babies, almost half receiving life saving intervention programs while in utero. “In some cases, the women know they are victims. In other cases they are blamed for the disease by the husband’s family members. Also the woman’s husband may be severely ill [with AIDS] so if she wants to argue about why he has the disease it only adds to the problem, it doesn’t offer solutions.

And then she has to face sick children, while sick herself. Women need support to face this,” says Dewi of the families she counsels and treats on a regular basis. Compounding the spread of HIV and risks to families is ignorance of the disease, says Dewi. “There are groups in the adult population who continue to ignore the lesson learned from HIV. The sad fact is, they think they are the only ones who will suffer the consequences. Other members of the family [or family members to be], such as their partners and their offspring will be affected too,” says Dewi.

Like Sanglah Hospital, Kerti Praja Foundation also cares for HIV positive children, supporting the medical work of the hospital with family support for the 37 babies and toddlers with HIV currently with the foundation. “For the past three months we have had a baby die each month,” says Lubis of the HIV tragedy now impacting on Bali’s general population.

Housewives and their children are rapidly becoming an at risk group within HIV transmission. Lubis explains this is due to low condom use by husbands visiting sex workers, engaging in same sex relationships, again without condoms or injecting drugs such as heroin with infected needles. These men carry home HIV to their unsuspecting wives, or in some cases, says Lubis, to wives aware their partner is HIV positive, but without the power to demand either sexual abstinence or condom use.

“The majority of babies in our program were born to housewives, often the widows of husbands that have died from HIV. There was one woman whose husband died of AIDS. She did not know he had the disease. Her child was also infected through birth. She only found out about the disease when her husband died and she went to be checked,” says Lubis.

The chance of men picking up or transmitting HIV in Bali’s sex work sites is extremely high. According to a December 2009 Health Department study, just 33.6 percent of sex workers said they “always use” condoms, against a massive 48.9 percent saying they “often use” condoms. Within the study 2.1 percent of workers “never used” condoms. This year the fi gures “always using” condoms has risen to more than 40 percent, according to Lubis, suggesting government and NGO mitigation programs are helping.

Again these fi gures need to be seen against the backdrop of HIV infection among sex workers. In some areas of Bali, almost half of all female sex workers are HIV positive; in other areas this fi gure drops to just over one percent. The average for the province of HIV positive sex workers is 23.2 percent, a rise of 22 percent in just nine years, according to data from Kerti Praja Foundation. According to Lubis, the earlier people discover they are HIV positive, the quicker life prolonging treatment can begin, this is particularly so in babies.

However mandatory HIV screening for pregnant women, while prolonging health for mother and baby has consequences for wives testing positive almost as disastrous as the deadly disease itself. “In my mind there are two things. I suggest every pregnant woman should have a HIV test. But I also feel this is very diffi cult because if she is HIV positive I am afraid of the stigma she faces. For a woman, if her test is positive, it will destroy her [family] life, but we need to encourage testing for babies’ health,” says Lubis.

The levels of HIV being seen within Bali’s general population, while still well below that of Papua, indicates a potential health nightmare for the province of just 3.5 million. “My biggest fear is grounded in the 1.24 percent in 403 pregnant women data, because of the potential numbers of babies born with HIV.

“If we do not learn from the lesson, …then the problem will continue, in which the uninfected will continue to ignore, the infected people will continue to spread the virus, and we will lose our new generation. What type of a society are we who ignore the children?” asks Dewi. On the hard data, Dewi says, “If there are 300 babies born from HIV women per year in Bali, this means that 25 babies per month, or approximately one baby per day. We can care for them. The problem is, these people may not come to the hospital. The number in the hospital represents only the peak, not the whole mountain.”

The issue there is the readiness of the community to fi nd out whether they are infected, so health providers can deliver a prevention program, Dewi says, reiterating that when pregnant women come under the (HIV) prevention program, infection risks in babies falls to just 1 or 2%. (May 20th

2010, the Jakarta Post)

Bali to Host Workshop on Orangutan Conservation

An international workshop on orangutan conservation will be conducted in the resort island of Bali from July 15-16, 2010. The workshop will be organized by the Forestry Ministry’s directorate general of natural conservation and forest protection in cooperation with the Indonesian Orangutan Forum. Spokesman of Trisakti University`s Orangutan Conservation Service Program, Jamartin Sihite said here on Saturday (22/10) that the workshop would be conducted as part of similar activities in the past to save the orangutan from extinction. (May 22nd

2010, Antara News)

Rushed New Movie on Obama’s Jakarta Boyhood Set to Ignite Religious Debate

In a move sure to provoke controversy among right-wing groups in the United States, production is set to begin on a new Indonesian movie about Barack Obama’s childhood in Jakarta. The movie is expected to include scenes of the future US president prostrating to God in the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca, as well as reciting from the Koran. The fi lm is based on the novel “Obama Anak Menteng” (“Obama the Menteng Kid”), which author Damien Dematra claims to be a true account of “Barry’s” childhood in the Jakarta suburb. The novel was reportedly written in fi ve days after Damien spent fi ve days interviewing 30 people. He said he had proof that Obama prayed in the manner of a Muslim and recited the Koran. Obama, a Christian, was forced to repeatedly deny claims during his ultimately successful presidential election campaign that he had Islamic roots and was educated in a Muslim madrassa. His African father and Indonesian stepfather were Muslim, though he attended secular and Catholic schools in Jakarta. Obama spent three years in Jakarta in the late 1960s and early ’70s. The president, who remains deeply popular in Indonesia in stark contrast to his predecessor, George W Bush, was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize in part for his efforts to reach out to the Muslim world. Damien told the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday that shooting on the Multivision Plus Pictures fi lm would start this week and the movie would be in cinemas on June 17. Multivision is known mainly for its television soap operas. (May 11th 2010, the Jakarta Globe)

Hot Jazz Musicians Returning to Cool Bromo Mountain’s Slopes for Festival

The cool, misty slope of Mount Bromo in East Java will play host to the second Jazz Gunung (Mountain Jazz) concert next month with more musicians in the lineup. The one-day event at the Java Banana Bromo, a lodge, cafe and gallery at Bromo, Probolinggo, East Java, on July 3, will be hosted by prominent Indonesian artists Butet Kartaredjasa and Djaduk Ferianto. Djaduk and Butet are two of the three founders of Kua Etnika, a group that presents ethnic music, traditional Javanese and Balinese styles with a modern twist. Another performer who displayed his own particular guitar style at last year’s event is I Wayan Balawan. The Balinese-born musician will perform his tapping technique, using piano technics to play the guitar, blending it with a traditional Balinese gamelan ensemble. New faces at the concert this year will include Syaharani, one of Indonesia’s leading female jazz vocalists, and guitarist Donny Suhendra, with whom she has worked on several albums and projects since 2006. Two jazz groups from Malang and Yogyakarta, Androginn and Monday Night Band, will join the Surabaya-based C Two Six, a jazz group that took part in last year’s event. The organizer expects 500 guests to attend the show, with tickets available from Rp 100,000 ($11). The event drew a crowd of about 400 last year. (May 11th

2010, the Jakarta Globe)

Bali Airport Axes Biometric Checks over Long Delays

Customs offi cials have pulled the plug on biometric checks of foreign nationals arriving at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali after less than a month, following an outcry over long queues and the threat of losing revenue. The Border Control Management system, which includes fi ngerprinting and photographing of short- stay visitors, was suspended on May 2 on the orders of Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar. The system, introduced on April 22, had led to inordinately long lines at immigration coun- ters. Those picking up visitors at the airport have also complained of the increased waiting times. “I once had guests whose fl ight landed at 11 p.m. but who did not leave the airport until 3 a.m.,” tour guide Putu Sumatika said. With the BCM decommissioned, offi cials will go back to just scanning visitors’ passports. BCM is in use at three other international airports, including Jakarta, where the same long queues have also been plaguing passengers. Maroloan said the BCM system was now being installed at Sultan Iskandar Muda International Airport in Aceh and that it was scheduled to be installed at 27 airports and seaports by the end of July. (May 11th

2010, the Jakarta Globe)

Australian Jailed in Bali for Drug Possession

A prominent trade unionist from Australia has been jailed for fi ve months by the Denpasar District Court after he was caught with 1.7 grams of marijuana in his luggage at Bali’s Ngurah Rai Airport on December 28. Robert Paul McJannett, 48, from Perth, at fi rst claimed he had been set up and then argued that he did not realize Marijuana was illegal in Indonesia. The six-month sentence was lighter than the prosecution’s demand of seven months. During his trial, McJannett argued that he was addicted to the drug and had been using it to help cope with stress, including a divorce and separation from his children. In arriving at the verdict, Judge Nyoman Sutama said mitigating factors included a confession, being polite in court and a promise that McJannett would not repeat his actions. (May 7th

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