People With HIV AIDS In The City Led By Gibran Rakabuming Significantly Increases, Reaching 962 Cases

Children and volunteers are active at the Solo Lentera Foundation (ANTARA)

SOLO - The Surakarta City AIDS Commission (KPA) noted an increase in cases of HIV/AIDS sufferers by more than 10 percent over the past few months. This increase is seen from the number of patients seeking treatment at health facilities.

A member of the KPA Advocacy Team for the City of Surakarta, Tri Wahyudi, said cases in the area experienced a significant increase.

"The latest data is that there are 962 people for the city of Solo, it's cumulative. This figure has increased by 184 people from the January-October range," he said during the commemoration of World AIDS Day at the Solo Lentera Foundation, quoted from Antara, Wednesday, December 1.

Based on the estimated data from the center, it is estimated that there are 2,636 cases of HIV/AIDS in the city led by Gibran Rakabuming.

"Even though there were only 962 cases found, this is a fairly high difference. That's why our community provides information so that they are aware of safe behavior, carry out prevention processes, especially with risk behavior," he said.

On the same occasion, Secretary of KPA Surakarta, Widy Srihanto, said that from the data on people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) there was a significant increase in the Soloraya area.

"From Soloraya who received treatment in Solo, there were 4,546 people, in Solo alone there were 962 people. Why is this increasing, yes, it is because of cases that want treatment or data from reports from health facilities that handle treatment," he said.

He said that the problem was that the PLWHA decided to stop treatment.

"They are not wanted, they pass the 'follow up'. This is our job, people who care about AIDS (to look for PLWHA, ed.). We also empower (people who care about AIDS sufferers, ed.) to provide assistance in treatment, because the dangerous ones seem healthy but sometimes carry the HIV virus," he said.

Related to the increase in cases, according to him, the government should try to suppress it by urging PLWHA to actively seek treatment.

"If you want treatment to be consistent, he said that recovering is difficult, but at least by taking medicine, the virus does not develop," he said. To reduce the number of exposures, he said, by urging people to behave in a healthy way.