Solo, Central Java (ANTARA News) - Up to March 2008, the total number Indonesians known to have been infected with the AIDS virus was 11,868, according to health ministry data.
However, the real number of HIV patients in the country could be much higher than that recorded by the health ministry, Tjandra Yoga, the ministry`s director of infectious disease control, said here on Saturday when speaking in a symposium on "Fight TB-HIV/AIDS".
Meanwhile, the number of those infected with HIV was estimated at 193,000 people, he said.
If the government did not deal with the spread of HIV/AIDS, the number of HIV/AIDS patients could increase to around one million, he said.
"The trend of HID/AIDS patients in Indonesia continues to increase," he said.
In addition to unprotected sexual intercourse, most of the HIV/AIDS transmissions were caused by unsterilized needle and syringe exchanges among drugs users, he said.
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