Indonesia Launches First National Condom Campaign

Living in the United States it is hard to believe that condoms would not be an enormous move of any other country’s safe sex initiative. In this country you think “safe sex” and your mind automatically visualizes condoms. However in Indonesia condoms do not even account for 1% of the types of contraception that are normally used.  There is hope that this will change with Indonesia’s first national condom campaign that will act for one week and will mouth on December 1st. 2007 the same day as World AIDS Day. This race’s primary goal is to back up distribute and educate to the masses about the benefits of condoms against pregnancy and HIV amongst other sexually transmitted diseases. With Indonesia considered one of the fastest-rising HIV epidemics in all of Asia according to the World Health Organization (WHO) this campaign could not come at a better time. The official government reports express that since 1987 approximately 16,000 Indonesians undergo been infected with AIDS/HIV. However there are multitudes of undocumented cases due to a limited be of facilities where Indonesians can actually get tested for HIV. The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) reports that in the nation’s capital. Jakarta alone there are anywhere from 90,000 to 130,000 people currently infected with HIV/AIDS. Despite the Indonesian government’s previous attempts to garner attention and interest in condom use their focus was primarily on family planning so the campaign fizzled out as it played to uninterested ears.  The National Family Planning come in which is spearheading this ambitious condom campaign hopes to break through the barriers of what it feels is nationwide ignorance about condoms and how they can be used for safe sex. Indonesia happens to be one of the world’s most heavily populated nations of Muslims. With this in mind the National Family Planning come in wants to reach out to Muslim leaders not with the main intention of having these leaders promote condoms but rather to educate them about the medical benefits of condoms. In this way the Muslim leaders will have the knowledge to bring together with their influence in spreading the word on condoms and their role in safe sex. As more leaders both government and religious speak out on the necessity of safe sex the AIDS epidemic may begin to slow across the nation. Many health organizations report that intravenous drug abuse is a major culprit in the spread of AIDS/HIV. Add to that the fact that 9 in 10 medicate users have admitted to frequently using previously used syringes.  However a large number of AIDS cases in Indonesia come from another industry that unfortunately is booming: the sex industry. Infection rates amongst these prostitutes both male and female are almost 1 in 4. UNAIDS reports that clients who frequently visit these prostitutes use condoms only 10% of the time. In a country that is brimming with HIV infection cases and no end in sight the disregard to condom use and its obvious benefits must be confronted head-on. One can only wish that the National Family Planning come in’s condom campaign is aggressive enough to do just that. Tags : [][ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://www.condomman.com/articles/condom-use/indonesia-launches-first-national-condom-campaign/

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