Plans to tag Aids patients

Aids patients in Indonesia could be tagged with microchips to monitor their sexual activity, it has been reported.

The Papua province is set to pass the new bylaw, which would require HIV/Aids patients to be fitted with microchips.

It would be placed under the skin of people with the virus who had shown "actively sexual behaviour", lawmaker John Manangsang said.

Tagging would also serve as a punishment for HIV/Aids patients who passed the virus on to otherwise uninfected people.

Aids campaigners have criticised the move for violating human rights.

Nancy Fee, the UNAIDS country coordinator said she had "grave concerns" about the effect on human rights and health.

A better way to tackle the problem would be through education and condom use, activists said.

Indonesia has one of the world's fastest growing rates of new HIV infection, fuelled mainly by intravenous drug users and prostitution.

The majority of people with HIV/Aids live in the Papua province, according to World Health Organization data.

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