2007-07-24

RFID Chips in HIV positive Papuans

The ABC Reports:
A doctor says lawmakers in the Indonesian province of Papua are mulling the selective use of chip implants in HIV carriers to monitor their behaviour in a bid to keep them from infecting others.

John Manangsang, a medical doctor who is helping to prepare a new health care regulation bill for Papua's provincial Parliament, says unusual measures are needed to combat the virus.

"We in the government in Papua have to think hard on ways to provide protection to people from the spread of the disease," Dr Manangsang said.

"Some of the infected people experience a change of behaviour and can turn more aggressive and would not think twice of infecting others," he said, adding that lawmakers are considering various sanctions for these people.

"Among one of the means being considered is the monitoring of those infected people who can pose a danger to others.

"The use of chip implants is one of the ways to do so, but only for those few who turn aggressive and clearly continue to disregard what they know about the disease and spread the virus to others."

But Dr Manangsang says a decision is still a long way off.

The head of the Papua chapter of the National AIDS Commission, Constant Karma, reportedly slammed the proposal as a violation of human rights.

"People with HIV/AIDS are not like sharks under observation so that they have to be implanted with microchips to monitor their movements," he told the Jakarta Post.

"Any form of identification of people with HIV/AIDS violates human rights."
I gotta say... this concerns me.


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