The surge in Covid-19 cases has hampered the handling of other diseases that require routine care and medication, such as HIV/AIDS and leprosy. Discontinuation of treatment can lead to drug resistance.
By
Kompas Team
·3 minutes read
The surge in Covid-19 cases has hampered the routine treatment of other diseases, such as AIDS, which is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and leprosy. In addition to the risks of discontinued treatment, early detection efforts for new cases have also been disrupted, which may trigger an explosion of issues in the future.
“As has happened in many other countries, the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia has impacted the handling of other diseases, such as HIV/AIDS. Patients who are supposed to have routine check-ups or treatments have been cut off,” said Zubairi Djoerban, Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) Covid-19 task force chairman, who is also a member of the Expert Panel on HIV/AIDS-Sexually Transmitted Diseases, in Jakarta, Thursday (17/2/2022).
According to Zubairi, people with HIV-AIDS must regularly take antiretroviral (ARV) drugs throughout their lives to suppress the replication of the virus in the body in order to maintain immunity. People with HIV/AIDS are at risks of developing drug resistance if they discontinue their medication. “As long as they regularly take ARVs and control their comorbidities, people with HIV are no more at risk than other people,” he said.
People with HIV should also be vaccinated against Covid-19. “The HIV patients I have treated have been vaccinated and received booster injections. It is important to prevent the severity of the Covid-19 outbreak,” he added.
People with HIV/AIDS who have died from Covid-19 generally stopped taking ARVs and discontinued treatment for comorbidities. Amid this current wave of Covid-19 infections, people infected with HIV are recommended to contact a specialist by using remote services and having medicine sent to them.
According to a report by the Health Ministry, based on the HIV epidemic model using the Asian Epidemic Modeling and Spectrum application, it was estimated that there would be 543,100 people with HIV in Indonesia in 2021. Thus far, only 75 percent of people with HIV know their HIV status and only 39.6 percent of people with HIV have received ARVs.
State of transmissions
Meanwhile, the national Covid-19 task force recorded a daily increase of 63,956 Covid-19 cases on Thursday (17/2), bringing the total number of cases to 5.03 million cases, with 206 deaths. Spikes in Covid-19 cases have been reported in several areas, including North Sulawesi and West Papua provinces.
In Tangerang, in 2022 alone, there were 17 deaths due to Covid-19, some of which were elderly people with comorbidities and those were not fully vaccinated.
In West Papua, 1,651 people were infected in the last six days. West Papua Covid-19 task force head Derek Amphir reported that there had been an increase in daily Covid-19 cases across 12 regencies and one city.
In North Sulawesi, daily Covid-19 cases surpassed the peak of the previous two waves of infections. According to the North Sulawesi Health Agency disease prevention and control head, Steaven Dandel, there were 994 new Covid-19 cases in North Sulawesi on Wednesday (16/2). “Transmission among the community is very fast and is a sign that transmission is growing out of control,” he said. (AIK/DAN/NCA/OKA/FLO)