Statistics hide true HIV plight

Government statistics say there are only 578 reported HIV or AIDS cases among the population of 200 million.

But the Director-General for Communicable Disease Control and Environmental Health, Dr Hadi Abednego, said the real numbers were thought to be up to 100 times higher.

Dr Abednego said 20 new HIV and AIDS cases were detected last month.

The reported number of Indonesians who are HIV positive stands at 438, while the number of full-blown AIDS cases is only 140, the statistics say.

Jakarta has the highest number of cases with 174, Irian Jaya has 141 and Bali 39.

Government sources yesterday said there could be up to 50,000 cases of HIV-positive people in Indonesia.