People in Papua with HIV to be chipped and monitored

Wait, WHAT?

Indonesia's Papua province is set to pass a bylaw that requires some HIV/AIDS patients to be implanted with microchips in a bid to prevent them infecting others, a lawmaker said on Saturday.

How is it going to prevent them from infecting others? It's not like the chip is going to provide an invisible forcefield that prevents any fluid contact between the chipped person and another.

If a patient with HIV/AIDS was found to have infected a healthy person, there would be a penalty, he said without elaborating.

Also: Patronising plus. If a person is deliberately and wilfully infecting someone who is unaware of their HIV status, or someone is pressured into unsafe sex, that's one thing. Two adults making a decision to accept the consequences of their actions is something else. WOuld this mean a partnership where one member is HIV + would no longer be able to have any kind of contact in case they infect their partner? What about instances where the transmission was not deliberate or intentioned, such as an accident victim bleeding on someone administering aid?

Health experts say the disease has been spreading rapidly from prostitutes to housewives in the past years.

Dirty whores. Dirty, naughty whores, sneaking into people's homes and giving housewives TEH AIDS.
Unless the lesbian sex trade in Papua is live and well, or there is a disproportionately large number of male sex workers in the province, I think someone is missing from this picture. Anyone care to guess who? Im aware the intent is probably to indicate the virus is affecting a wide swathe of the community, but this can be done without removing the agent of this infection from the picture.

High rates of promiscuity, rituals in some Papuan tribes where partner swapping takes place, poor education about AIDS and lack of condoms are among factors that cause the spread of the disease there.

Promiscuity doesnt lead to infection. Partner swapping doesnt lead to infection. The last two? Spot on. THAT's why infection spreads.

So, you know, instead of addressing the issues that are obviously recognised as being the major factors in HIV spread (oh, really, poor education and lack of condoms lead to infection? Who'da thunk it), they're going to chip those already infected, like they're a pack of animals to track and cull.

If their aim is really to stop seropositive people from infecting others, why not address the education and condom availability issue? Teach people that they need to wrap it, teach them why and how to do it, and then make the bloody things available for them to use.