Positive Life NSW

Microchips mulled for HIV carriers in Indonesia’s Papua

Jul 24 Antara News Agency

Lawmakers in Indonesia’s Papua are mulling the selective use of chip implants in HIV carriers to monitor their behaviour in a bid to keep them from infecting others, a doctor said Tuesday. John Manangsang, a doctor who is helping to prepare a new healthcare regulation bill for Papua’s provincial parliament, said that unusual measures were needed to combat the virus.

“We in the government in Papua have to think hard on ways to provide protection to people from the spread of the disease,” Manangsang told AFP. “Some of the infected people experience a change of behaviour and can turn more aggressive and would not think twice of infecting others,” he alleged, saying lawmakers were considering various sanctions for these people.

“Among one of the means being considered is the monitoring of those infected people who can pose a danger to others,” Manangsang said. “The use of chip implants is one of the ways to do so, but only for those few who turn aggressive and clearly continue to disregard what they know about the disease and spread the virus to others,” he said. A decision was still a long way off, he added.

The head of the Papua chapter of the National AIDS Commission, Constant Karma, reportedly slammed the proposal as a violation of human rights. “People with HIV/AIDS are not like sharks under observation so that they have to be implanted with microchips to monitor their movements,” he told the Jakarta Post on Tuesday. “Any form of identification of people with HIV/AIDS violates human rights.”

According to data from Papua’s health office cited by the Post, the province has just over 3,000 people living with HIV/AIDS. Some 356 deaths have been reported. Papua has a population of about 2.5 million.