Indonesia’s Papua battles AIDS epidemic

WAENA, Indonesia: Fifteen-year-old Adina curls up in bed under a sheet, her body ravaged by AIDS, one of many caught up in an epidemic sweeping Indonesia’s eastern Papua region.
The teen, who only gave her first name, contracted HIV from an infected boyfriend and is one of 10 AIDS patients receiving free care at a hostel run by Agustinus Adil, a Catholic brother.
The patients include children and adults, with some whose cases are less advanced still able to walk around but others skeletal figures, who are almost blind and confined to bed.
Some ended up in the hostel in Waena village after being thrown out of home when their relatives found out they had HIV, as the virus still carries a strong stigma in deeply poor Papua, which has the highest prevalence of infections in Indonesia.