BANDUNG, unpas.ac.id – The news of 414 HIV-positive Bandung students that emerged a few weeks ago caused an uproar on social media.
The news refers to data from the Bandung AIDS Commission (Komisi Penanggulangan AIDS, KPA) which stated that until December 2021, about 5,943 Bandung residents with HIV, students accounted for 6.97 percent of cases or 414 people.
However, confirmed by the Head of the Bandung City KPA Secretariat Sis Silvia Dewi, the data is an accumulation from 1991 to 2021 which is grouped by occupation.
The percentage of students is in fact the most highlighted although it is relatively smaller than the percentage of other occupations. Private employees are 30 percent, entrepreneurs are 15 percent, and housewives are 11 percent.
HIV Lacks Maximum Control
Teacher of Department of Communication Studies, FISIP Universitas Pasundan Charisma Asri Fitrananda, S.I.Kom, M.I.Kom said that she was concerned about the issues regarding the students contributing to HIV positive cases.
On the other hand, she also felt regretted that there was no confirmation by journalists regarding valid data to the Bandung KPA. The circulating data has gone viral and has made it difficult for the Bandung KPA to deal with it.
“In Indonesia, it is difficult to tackle HIV because it will conflict with the values and norms prevailing in society. Moreover, HIV appears as a result of immoral activities, such as free sex, sharing needles, and so on,” she said on Wednesday, 14 September 2022 as reported by Unpas Ilkom Podcast.
Various preventive that has been attempted so far are often considered taboo. This lack of education makes counselling about HIV ineffective.
From the results of his research, Charisma found that teenagers up to high school age cannot express themselves freely because they are still under the supervision of their parents.
“When they go to college, they feel free life, so there is often hypermorality or an impression of being normal. The morale of students in the field is already biased, they can no longer distinguish between good and bad because they are hyper,” she explained.
If students fall into promiscuity, even approaching or doing things that have the potential to transmit HIV, according to him, the easiest and cheapest preventive step can be started from the family environment.
“Families play an important role in protecting and reminding,” she continued.
The Importance of Understanding the Health Communication
Regarding the news in world of health, she reviewed that there needs to be an understanding about Health Communication. At Unpas Department of Communication Studies, Health Communication is one of the new courses included in MBKM curriculum.
Health Communication does not only focus and discuss on medical terms specifically, but also on how communication contributes to health sector: for example, on preventive measures which can be done by people to handle on disease and many more.
“It more focuses on the spread of digital-based information. Actually, health information provided by health practitioner to the disease survivors is less effective because it uses medical language, so we need communication-based people who can analyse and approach audiences in different ways,” she concluded. (Reta)**