Prevention, control and treatment of HIV-AIDS among injecting drug use in Bandung, Indonesia

Abstract

Indonesia is facing a growing HIV-epidemic that in many areas is driven by injecting drug use (IDU). IDUs underutilize health services, partly because of legal aspects which also cause that many are held in prison, where further HIV- transmission may take place. Most HIV-infected patients present with advanced HIV-AIDS and many deaths before starting antiretroviral treatment. The growing HIV-epidemic in Indonesia has socio-economical implications for individual patients as well as for the health system and for society. IMPACT, a multidisciplinary university-based program in Bandung, West-Java, integrates HIV-prevention and treatment, combining research and implementation. Biomedical, public health and sociobehavioral expertise is used for educational programs for adolescents; scaling-up HIV-testing, harm reduction strategies and care for HIV/AIDS in hospital, community and prison; and institutional as well as individual capacity building related to IDU and HIV/AIDS. It is expected that these activities can make a significant contribution to control of HIV-AIDS in the context of injecting drug use in West-Java and Indonesia as a whole.