Not Having An ID Card Is Not An Obstacle For HIV Sufferers To Get The COVID-19 Vaccine

UNSPLASH ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health emphasized that not having an Identity Card (KTP) is not an obstacle for people with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in accessing and getting the COVID-19 vaccine.

“(Not having) a National Identity Number is not an obstacle. So about people with HIV, if they don't have an ID card, they can come to the Population and Civil Registration Office to ask for a population identification number," said Director of Prevention and Control of Directly Transmitted Diseases at the Ministry of Health, Siti Nadia Tarmizi in a Press Briefing World AIDS Day 2021, quoted by Antara. , Tuesday, November 30.

Nadia emphasized that the issuance of the NIK at the Population and Civil Registration Service (Dukcapil) was a form of the government's seriousness in encouraging marginalized groups such as trans women and sex workers to immediately get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Later, only by using the given NIK, HIV sufferers who are included in the vulnerable group can have evidence that they have been vaccinated.

Nadia also said that the COVID-19 vaccine is safe for people with HIV so that injections must be carried out immediately. Because according to the Ministry of Health, 395,000 people have been detected with the status as sufferers of the virus.

Except for patients who have opportunistic infectious diseases or are still in doubt, he suggests contacting the health care facility or the treating doctor so that they can make sure they can immediately follow the vaccination or not.

"So from the available data, 395,000 who have been detected with HIV status, we encourage them to immediately get vaccinated," he said.

Meanwhile, Chairperson of the National Secretariat of the Positive Indonesia Network Meirinda Sebayang said there are still many people with HIV who have difficulty accessing COVID-19 vaccine services because they do not have ID cards.

According to him, approximately 1,137 people with HIV have not received and do not have a COVID-19 vaccine schedule. This is because some people in the group are members of the marginalized.

"Some groups of people with HIV do not have ID cards, especially those who are marginalized, trans women or sex workers, they can't access the vaccine because they don't have ID cards," he said.

In addition to ID cards, inequality and discrimination in accessing health services are also the cause of the difficulty of HIV sufferers in getting treatment, especially during the pandemic which has caused many facilities to be diverted for COVID-19 patients.

Therefore, Meirinda asked the government to help people with HIV get proper treatment in order to free the country from the HIV/AIDS pandemic in 2030.