The total number of known AIDS patients in Indonesia was 11,868 by March 2008, according to Indonesian Health Ministry data.
However, the real number of AIDS patients in the country could be much higher than that recorded by the health ministry, Antara news agency quoted Tjandra Yoga, the ministry's director of infectious disease control, as saying on Saturday when speaking at a symposium "Fight TB-HIV/AIDS".
Meanwhile, the number of those infected with HIV was estimated at 193,000, he said.
If the government did not deal with the spread of HIV/AIDS, the number of HIV/AIDS patients could increase to around one million, he said.
In addition to unprotected sexual intercourse, most of the HIV/AIDS transmissions were caused by unsterilized needles and syringe exchanges among drugs users, he said.
Source: Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article