RFID Tags for HIV Patients? One Indonesian State is Talking About It...

Filed in archive Asia on November 28, 2008

Reuters reported back on Monday that the Indonesian province of Papua was considering a new law that "requires some HIV/AIDS patients to be implanted with microchips in a bid to prevent them infecting others." Radio Frequency ID (or RFID) microchips were to be used. You can imagine the mix of reaction...

The plan was to use the tag to monitor the movements of HIV patients in the province and determine whether they were infecting other people - in which case there would be "a penalty." The Reuters piece talked about the HIV rates in Papua (which are 15 to 20 times higher than the national average for Indonesia) and said that "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." The case has even attracted the attention of TIME.


Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Jason Hamel





The HIV rate in Papua is about 2.5 percent - one of the highest outside of Africa. It is expected to climb to about 7 percent - one in every 13 people - by the year 2025 if it continues to progress at the current rate. The epidemiology is almost entirely heterosexual contact in Papua. Men catch it from a prostitute and give it to their wives; it spreads through some villages because of religious rituals that involve wife swapping.

Among those who reacted to the plan, Duncan Riley over at the Inquisitr wondered whether plan B was "just putting them in camps or shoot them straight away." And our own RFID expert blogger here at Creative Weblogging, Gautam, said he "would rate this as one of the weirdest uses of technology if it gets the approval!!!" In his view, education is the answer and RFID tags probably won't do the trick.

The New Zealand site Stuff is among a number of sources reporting today that the secretary of Indonesia's National Commission on Aids Control, Nafsiah Mboi, has rejected the new law and said that it would violate human rights if enacted. It's not clear yet that his statement will bring an end to the issue, and the Papua legislature is still evidently considering the law.