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Homemakers in West Java are more prone to becoming infected with AIDS-causing HIV, compared to sex workers in the province, an official said on Wednesday.

The West Java Health Agency’s latest report on the incidence of HIV infection and AIDS showed that, in March, there were 4,520 known HIV/AIDS cases in the province, of which more than 2,600 were confirmed to have full-blown AIDS.

Most of them were in the highly reproductive age group of 20 to 29. “We were quite shocked with the increasing number of people living with HIV/AIDS in our province,” Alma Lucyanti, the head of West Java Health Agency, told the Jakarta Globe.

Alma said the agency was very concerned to find that the number of homemakers living with HIV/AIDS was higher than sex workers living with the virus. “There are 295 housewives infected with the virus, while there are only 259 prostitutes infected,” she said.

Alma added that the finding indicated that there were many men in West Java having unsafe intercourse with sex workers and then transmitted the disease to their wives. She said the data showed the insufficient level of condom use in the province.

“Indeed, there are a lot of men in West Java who make regular visits to the red-light districts without using condoms,” she said.

However, Alma said, West Java only held the record as the province with the highest number of HIV/AIDS cases because it has the proper public awareness and early detection system to diagnose the cases.

“Our people are very eager to go through the voluntary counseling test to check if they are at risk,” she said, adding that it took hard work to curb the number of people living with HIV/AIDS as the problem was related to many factors including social and religious issues.

“It didn’t just happen because of health problems but also because of the lack of faith and family support,” she said.

Alma said the finding has driven the agency to focus its HIV/AIDS awareness campaign on homemakers.

“We will address this issue immediately as the number is getting scary,” she said.