Indonesian province plans microchips for AIDS patients, drawing criticism

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Indonesian province plans microchips for AIDS patients, drawing

criticism

1 hour, 24 minutes ago

By Niniek Karmini, The Associated Press

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Legislators in Indonesia's remote province of

Papua have thrown their support behind a controversial bill requiring

some HIV/AIDS patients to be implanted with microchips - part of

extreme efforts to monitor the disease.

Health workers and rights activists sharply criticized the plan

Monday.

But legislator Manangsang said by implanting small computer

chips beneath the skin of " sexually aggressive " patients, authorities

would be in a better position to identify, track and ultimately

punish those who deliberately infect others with up to six months in

jail or a $5,000 US fine.

The technical and practical details still need to be hammered out,

but the proposed legislation has received full backing from the

provincial parliament and, if it gets a majority vote as expected,

will be enacted next month, he and others said.

Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous country and has one of

Asia's fastest growing HIV rates, with up to 290,000 infections out

of 235 million people, fuelled mainly by intravenous drug users and

prostitution.

But Papua, the country's easternmost and poorest province with a

population of about two million, has been hardest hit. Its case rate

of almost 61 per 100,000 is 15 times the national average, according

to internationally-funded research, which blames lack of knowledge

about sexually transmitted diseases.

" The health situation is extraordinary, so we have to take

extraordinary action, " said another legislator, Weynand Watari, who

envisions radio frequency identification tags like those used to

track everything from cattle to luggage.

A committee would be created to decide who should be fitted with

chips and to monitor patients' behaviour, but it remains unclear who

would be on it and how they would carry out their work, lawmakers

said Monday.

Since the plan was initially proposed, the government has narrowed

its scope, saying the chips would only be implanted in those who

are " sexually aggressive, " but it has not said how it would determine

who fits that group. It also was not clear how many people it might

include.

Fee, the UNAIDS country co-ordinator, said the global body was

not aware of any laws or initiatives elsewhere involving HIV/AIDS

patients and microchips.

Though she has yet to see a copy of the bill, she said she had " grave

concerns " about the effect it would have on human rights and public

health.

" No one should be subject to unlawful or unnecessary interference of

privacy, " Fee said, adding that while other countries have been known

to be oppressive in trying to tackle AIDS, such policies don't work.

They make people afraid and push the problem further underground, she

said.

Local health workers and AIDS activists called the plan " abhorrent. "

" People with AIDS aren't animals; we have to respect their rights, "

said Tahi Ganyang Butarbutar, a prominent Papuan activist.

He said the best way to tackle the epidemic was through increased

spending on sexual education and condom use.