East Java needs temporary housing for AIDS sufferers: NGO

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya | Archipelago | Fri, December 28 2012, 12:51 PM

The Indonesian Network for HIV Infected People (JOTHI) has urged the East Java administration to provide temporary homes for HIV/AIDS sufferers who have been shunned and stigmatized.
The organization has recorded five cases of people who were abandoned by their families because of their HIV positive status in East Java within the last month, the coordinator of the JOTHI, Ita Adiyarti, said on Thursday.
That number, however, was only the tip of the iceberg as there were many unrecorded and undisclosed cases, she said.
People with HIV/AIDS are often shunned by their relatives and friends due to lack of information on the disease, and thus they are left without shelter, according to Ita.
These people could not stay at hospitals either, as they could easily become infected with other diseases due to their weak immune systems, she said.
Therefore, the government should build temporary housing for them to live in until their families were willing to accept them again, Ita said.
She also called on the government to better inform people living in rural areas about the disease to reduce the social stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS.
“Campaigns which call on people not to shun those living with HIV/AIDS are still limited to shopping malls and schools. However, there are many people living in villages who are still not well informed on the disease,” Ita said.