Asia-Pacific

Over 18,000 Indonesians suffer from HIV/AIDS

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-11-26 20:51

JAKARTA: An official of the Indonesian Health Ministry said on Thursday that 18,442 people in Indonesia have been infected by HIV/AIDS.

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Director General of Disease Control and Environmental Health of the ministry Tjandra Yoga Aditama said that the cases were found at nearly in all parts of the country.

The highest rate of the cases was in Papua province in easternmost of Indonesia, followed by Bali resort island, Jakarta and Riau, said Tjandra.

The director also said that 49.57 percent of the sufferers were at the ages between 20 to 29 years old, followed by 29.84 percent at the ages 30 to 39 years old, 8.71 percent at the ages 40 to 49 years old.

In term of gender, more male suffered the disease rather than female with ration of 3 to 1.

"The way of the contamination of the disease are through heterosexual and homosexual sexual activities,"said Tjandra.

At the third quarter of this year, the number of the case on HIV/AIDS rose by 743, he said.