There is plenty of information on the Net about health

Joanna Pickles

The Internet facilitates an immediate sharing and exchange of knowledge, which is vital to the health sector. It has also enabled virtual networks of health workers, community workers, health researchers and policy makers to be established.

Health system

The Indonesian Ministry of Health’s (MoH) English language website (http://www.depkes.go.id/english/) provides a wealth of information on the health system, including a synopsis of health across the country. Check out the health profiles of 1999 and 1998, which contain statistics from the Ministry’s surveys on a variety of issues including disease, nutrition, population, the state of hospitals and family planning. For more information on the challenges facing the health sector in Indonesia visit the Coalition for a Healthy Indonesia (http://english.koalisi.org/default.htm) an independent organisation that works in partnership with the MoH, USAID and Johns Hopkins University. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Indonesia website (http://www.who.or.id/) has sections on pharmaceuticals, health technologies and community health.

The Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 severely affected the health sector in Indonesia. The web hosts to several e-publications on the impact of the crisis for Indonesian health. AusAID has made available a lengthy and comprehensive report on this topic (http://www.ausaid.gov.au/publications/pdf/health_indonesia.pdf). For a summary of the health sector during the crisis, see the report by the SMERU Research Institute at http://www.smeru.or.id/newslet/2000/ed09/field92.htm). Keep an eye on the SMERU homepage for new information (http://www.smeru.or.id/). Another site with rich data on the impact of the Financial Crisis and drought of 1997 is Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS, http://www.rand.org/labor/FLS/IFLS/). The IFLS data is available for no cost after registering your details.

Reproductive health

Anyone interested in finding out more about reproductive health in Indonesia should visit (http://www.gfmer.ch/Endo/Reprod_health/Indonesia/Rh_Indonesia.htm). It has great links. The Population Council country page on Indonesia is another helpful site (http://www.popcouncil.org/asia/indonesia.html), as is the United Nations Population Fund page on Indonesia (http://www.un.or.id/unfpa/idpop.html). The e-published newsletter Research for Sex Work (http://www.med.vu.nl/hcc/contentsr4sw.htm) contains several articles about the sex industry in Indonesia.

Drug use

The Asian Harm Reduction Network (AHRN, http://www.ahrn.net/) supports people working in Asia to stop the spread of HIV among injecting drug users. Another website that provides a good background to this subject is Yayasan Cinta Anak Bangsa site (YCAB, http://www.ycab.net/mission.asp). YCAB is an independent organisation that conducts drug education with Indonesian young people. The Center for Harm Reduction (CHR, http://chr.datalink.net.au/home) offers many interesting document downloads. Particularly worth checking out is Revisiting the Hidden Epidemic (http://chr.datalink.net.au/resources/libraryservices/docdownload#200), a thorough outline of drug use and HIV/AIDS in Asia.

Something interactive?

The Asia Pacific Health Economics Network (http://www.unescap.org/aphen/amailist.html) is a regional Internet discussion group. Although global in focus, the new UNIFEM Web Portal, Gender and HIV/AIDS (http://www.genderandaids.org/index.php), has a great variety of articles, email discussion lists, links and virtual libraries with some articles on health in Indonesia. The long established SEA-AIDS mailing list (http://archives.healthdev.net/sea-aids/) reaches well over 2,500 subscribers and has vast archives. Finally, for a forum specifically on sex work in Asia sign up to (http://archives.healthdev.net/sex-work/index.html).

Joanna Pickles (Joanna.Pickles@anu.edu.au) is completing a PhD on drug use at the Australian National University.