BROLL - Health checkup/HIV treatment pickup, Indonesia

Health checkup and HIV treatment pickup, Jakarta, Indonesia
26 November 2024– Ahead of World AIDS Day, 1 December, UNAIDS filmed a person living with HIV going to a health clinic and getting a checkup as well as his three-month supply of HIV medicine. HIV treatment when taken regularly keeps the virus at bay and a person can live a long, healthy life.
Hadi Timotius is a former user of drugs. He acquired HIV in 2004 by sharing needles while injecting drugs. At the time he had no will to live but HIV treatment and Narcotics Anonymous helped him feel better. He began doing outreach among his peers. Ten years later, Hadi is Deputy programme manager at JIP, a national network of people living with HIV in Indonesia.
When leading trainings with other HIV peer counsellors, Hadi stresses the concept of U=U to encourage people to know their status and start and stay on treatment if they are HIV+. A person taking treatment regularly becomes undetectable (the virus is barely detectable) and as a result the person does not transmit the virus to a sexual partner or via needles or via pregnancy or childbirth or breastfeeding (untransmittable.)
UNAIDS estimates 570 000 people live with HIV with 28 000 now HIV infections last year. New HIV infections have fallen 44% since 2010 in Indonesia however, the epidemic predominantly impacts key populations—such as people who inject drugs (28% HIV prevalence) and men who have sex with men (21% prevalence).