25% of Bali Prostitutes Are HIV-Positive, Agency Says

Made Arya | November 12, 2010

Denpasar, Indonesia. About 25 percent of Bali’s estimated 8,000 sex workers are infected with HIV, according to the National AIDS Commission.

The commission also reported on Friday that the Indonesian tourist island had seen an almost 20 percent increase in the number of reported cases of HIV infections over the past year.

Mangku Karmaya, head of the information division of the commission known as the KPA, said on Friday that last year Bali had a total of 3,181 HIV cases.

He said 596 new cases had been reported, a rise of 18.7 percent, taking the number to 3,778.

“There is an increasing number of infections among heterosexuals who practice unsafe sex,” Karmaya said.

He said if nothing was done to tackle the problem there would soon be more than 840 new cases in Bali every year.

Karmaya said the rising number of infected prostitutes would lead to higher infection rates as clients passed the virus on to their spouses. “We need to increase the awareness of using condoms among this group,” he said.

Bali is among the top provinces in the country in terms of officially reported HIV/AIDS cases, with Papua on top.

Data from the Ministry of Health shows that as of March, West Java had the highest number of full-blown AIDS cases at 3,599, East Java had 3,540, Papua 2,858, Jakarta 2,828 and Bali 1,725. Official data for HIV infections alone in other provinces were not immediately available.

These figures are only the tip of the iceberg. While the official number of AIDS cases is 28,654, according to the same data, KPA national secretary Nafsiah Mboi says the actual number is much higher, with only an estimated 15 percent of infections being accounted for in official statistics.

UNAIDS has estimated at least 270,000 Indonesians have HIV.

Bali legislator I Gusti Ngurah Kesuma Kelakan said the government must act immediately to deal with the problem. He urged people to not discriminate against people with HIV as it would discourage them from getting proper treatment.