South Sulawesi HIV/AIDS cases near epidemic levels

The Jakarta Post, Makassar | Fri, 12/12/2008 8:00 PM  

The growing number of people with HIV/AIDS in South Sulawesi over the last two years has showed that the prevalence of the deadly disease in the province will soon reach the level of a "concentrated epidemic", a local health agency says. 

A concentrated epidemic is defined as one in which HIV prevalence in high-risk subpopulations is 5 percent or higher. 

Agency chief Naisyah Tun Azikin told kompas.com Friday the annual increase in people with HIV/AIDS has reached five percent in certain subgroups of the population. 

She estimated more than a thousand HIV/AIDS-infected people were currently living in South Sulawesi, half of them in Makassar. 

Formal records from the agency show 1,844 recorded cases of HIV/AIDS between 1996 and 2007, with 532 people infected with AIDS and 1,312 with HIV.