"We will continue to strengthen the VCT services at various hospitals and community healthcare centers to detect if someone is infected with HIV/AIDS or not," local Health Office Chief for Prevention and Control of Diseases, Elvy Effendi, remarked here on Monday.
She said the VCT services have been made available at the hospitals in five districts/cities in Yogyakarta and almost all private hospitals and community healthcare centers.
With the VCT services, Elvy expressed hope that the public would not feel shy to undergo early detection of HIV/AIDS, because confidentiality is guaranteed during the counseling and testing at VCT.
Yogyakartas position as both a tourism destination and a site of numerous universities resulted in it being a place for more high-risk sexual activities in the city.
As a tourism city, one of its negative impacts is the rise in loose sexual behavior. At the same time, a lot of young people live in Yogyakarta.
Referring to data from the Yogyakarta Health Office, the number of people living with HIV reached 3,334 from 1993 to March 2016, and the number of AIDS patients reached 1,314 people.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2016
