You are here: Home

International News

INDONESIA: Condom controversy continues

International News

INDONESIA: Condom controversy continues Last Updated on Monday, 23 July 2012 SHARE \| A A A TEXT SIZE AKARTA, 20 July 2012 (PlusNews) - Rizki, 29, is wooing passers-by outside a bar in a red-light district near Jakarta, the Indonesian capital. In her five years as a commercial sex worker she has always urged clients to use a condom to avoid HIV infection. "About 70 percent of my customers use condoms," she said. "Some men get angry when I ask, but most comply." HIV is spreading more quickly than before, but the government’s campaign to promote condom usage among people at high risk of infection has once again been criticized by religious groups. Social stigma and sexual taboos are major obstacles in fighting HIV/AIDS in Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population. "If members of society engage in risky sex, we need to give them religious and reproductive health education," Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi said in aYouTube videoposted online on 19 June. "But if they still do it, what we can do is urge them to use condoms to reduce the risks." Prevalence is at only 0.2 percent of the country’s 238 million people, but the number of new HIV infections had risen sharply from 7,195 in 2006 to 21,031 in 2011, the latest health ministryreport notes Read the original news from Plus News.
Posted on: Monday, 23 July 2012 Print Story Email Story

INDONESIA: Condom controversy continues

Last Updated on Monday, 23 July 2012

| A A A TEXT SIZE

AKARTA, 20 July 2012 (PlusNews) - Rizki, 29, is wooing passers-by outside a bar in a red-light district near Jakarta, the Indonesian capital. In her five years as a commercial sex worker she has always urged clients to use a condom to avoid HIV infection. "About 70 percent of my customers use condoms," she said. "Some men get angry when I ask, but most comply."

HIV is spreading more quickly than before, but the government’s campaign to promote condom usage among people at high risk of infection has once again been criticized by religious groups. Social stigma and sexual taboos are major obstacles in fighting HIV/AIDS in Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population.

"If members of society engage in risky sex, we need to give them religious and reproductive health education," Health Minister Nafsiah Mboi said in aYouTube videoposted online on 19 June. "But if they still do it, what we can do is urge them to use condoms to reduce the risks."

Prevalence is at only 0.2 percent of the country’s 238 million people, but the number of new HIV infections had risen sharply from 7,195 in 2006 to 21,031 in 2011, the latest health ministryreport notes

Read the original news from Plus News.