JakartaPost-June 14
A disproportionate number of housewives and pregnant women contract sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) such as HIV and syphilis each year, according to recent data from the Health Ministry, which attributed the problems to poor awareness of sexual health and their partners’ unsafe sexual behavior. Sexual and reproductive health activists say that the lack of a comprehensive approach and preventative measures from the government, as well as stigma and prejudice from society at large have prevented women living with STDs from being tested or seeking medical treatment, increasing the risk of STD transmission to thousands of infants each year. According to data from the Health Ministry, about 35 percent of all new HIV cases in Indonesia are found in housewives, greater than in other vulnerable demographics such as the spouses of sex workers or men who have sex with men. Roughly 5,100 housewives contract HIV in the country each year, with around 33 percent catching the disease from their husbands. Syphilis cases have also increased by a staggering 70 percent in the past five years, from around 12,000 incidents in 2016 to 21,000 last year. Out of 17,000-20,000 new syphilis patients each year, around 5,500 are pregnant women. Health Ministry spokesperson Muhammad Syahril said recently that the main reasons for the high STD transmissions among housewives and pregnant women were the lack of knowledge about STDs and how to prevent them, as well as having partners who engage in high-risk sexual behavior. The high incidence of pregnant women contracting HIV and syphilis is putting thousands of infants at risk, with pregnant women with HIV having a 20-45 percent chance of transmitting the virus to their babies at birth and during breastfeeding. Another spokesperson at the ministry, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said that since 2017 health authorities had been providing free HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B tests for pregnant women, a program dubbed triple elimination. “Health workers [in community health centers] always offer pregnant women syphilis, HIV and hepatitis B tests and if the results are positive they will be offered free treatment to prevent transmission to their infants,” she told The Jakarta Post recently. “The ministry also continues to educate the public, both homosexuals and heterosexuals, not to engage in high-risk sexual behaviors,” he said. Read more at:
