RI to provide $1 million in relief aid to Myanmar

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia has decided to provide relief aid worth US$1 million to Myanmar to help victims of Cyclone Nargis that left around 15,000 people dead or missing and caused serious damage to the country, a presidential spokesman said.

The tragedy reminded President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of the deadly tsunami in Aceh on December 26, 2004, Dino Patty Djalal said at the presidential oOffice here on Tuesday.

"That`s why the president decided to provide US$1 million in aid to Myanmar," he said.

The relief aid which included medicines and food would soon be flown to Myanmar using two Indonesian military (TNI) Hercules planes, he said.

On Tuesday morning, President Yudhoyono contacted an official at the Myanmarese Embassy in Jakarta, Kyi Maung Oo, to ask what the Myanmarese government and people needed, Dino said.

Dino quoted Maung Oo as saying that he still had difficulty contacting government officials in Yangon as communication networks were damaged.

In the phone talks, Maung Oo expressed gratitude to President Yudhoyono for the relief aid, Dino said.

He said the president had ordered the coordinating minister for people`s welfare to coordinate with the TNI chief in dispatching the relief aid.

He said so far there had been no report of Indonesian citizens being among the victims of the natural disaster in Myanmar.

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RI sends aid to Myanmar, sealed with SBY letter

Images of Aceh Earthquake 9.2 /Tsunami Disaster December 2004

Health ministry: 11,868 Indonesians infected with AIDS virus

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.

Indonesia 'not a dump for medicinal drugs'

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post, Bogor | Wed, 04/30/2008 1:10 PM 

The state minister of youth and sports affairs, Adhyaksa Dault, said Tuesday that Indonesia should not become a "universal trash bin" for other countries' medicinal drugs.

"We need professional pharmacists so the country can stop importing drugs," he said at the opening of a pharmaceutical vocational high school in Bogor.

The minister argued if Indonesia could produce qualified pharmacy experts, the country would probably produce its own medication in the future.

"We don't want Indonesia to be a place other countries use to dump their products.

"We probably won't be importing drugs in the future. Instead, we will probably produce our own medicine," said the minister.

He also said the price of imported drugs in Indonesia was six to seven times their actual value.

Gartono, head of the foundation that oversees the vocational high school, Yasan 84, said education was an investment for the future.

"Indonesia needs people who are experts in their fields to be able to compete with other countries," he said.

The pharmaceutical vocational high school, which currently has 150 students, was established in 2002. (lva)

Bali to host int`l confab on reproductive health management

Denpasar, Bali (ANTARA News) - At least 26 countries and tens of international agencies engaged in family planning will take part in an "International Conference on Reproductive Health Management Emphasis on Family Planning" here on May 6-8, an Indonesian family planning official said.

Some 400 delegates would attend the conference among other things to exchange experience in implementing reproductive health programs in their respective country in order to find ways to get better results, Dr Siswanto Agus Wilopo, deputy chief for family planning and reproductive health of the National Family Planning Coordinating Agency (BKKBN), said here Friday.

A similar conference was held previously in Manila, the Philippines, in 2006.

He said discussions in the conference would focus on reproductive health management and critical problems affecting reproductive health programs.

The conference was also being supported by the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA).