Anti-gay sentiment seen threatening Indonesia’s goal to end Aids by 2030
Growing anti-gay sentiment in Indonesia could hamper efforts to combat fast-rising HIV infections among one of the most at-risk groups, threatening the country’s target to end an Aids epidemic by 2030, a senior official has warned.
Although new infections have been falling globally, Indonesia is one country where they are on the rise as the disease spreads rapidly among gay men and other men who have had sex with men (MSM) over the past decade.
In terms of number, MSM [men who have sex with men] is the fastest growing [group]
HIV prevalence among the group jumped to 25.8 per cent in 2015 from 5.4 per cent in 2007, according to Indonesia’s National Aids Commission. “In terms of number, MSM is the fastest growing [group],” the commission’s secretary Kemal Siregar told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Asia Pacific is home to the second highest number of people living with HIV in the world, with India, Indonesia and China accounting for around three quarters of new infections in 2015, according to the UN’s Aids agency UNAids.
South Africa has the highest number of people living with HIV in the world. UNAids estimates there are around 690,000 people living with HIV in Indonesia.
Siregar said there was now “uncertainty” over meeting Indonesia’s target to end an Aids epidemic by 2030 as efforts to reach out to the MSM group – who he described as “hidden population” – had become harder due to increasing social stigma.
This follows a backlash against Indonesia’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community earlier this year.