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Denpasar (ANTARA News) - As many as 21 people in Bali`s Badung district died of HIV/AIDS in 2008, a local HIV/AIDS eradication activist said here on Friday.

Speaking at the closing of a "peer educators" training course for villagers concerned about the deadly disease, Adi Rukmini of Badung District`s AIDS Eradication Commission (KPA) said the district now had 373 HIV/AIDS sufferers who were living in almost all of the region`s sub districts.

Of the number, 252 had been positively diagnosed as suffering from HIV and 120 from full-blown AIDS. Based on these data, it was believed the number of deaths from the disease which now stood at 21 would continue to rise in the near future, she said.

Rukmini said people could help fight the disease if they refrained from two things : the practice of "free sex" and the consumption of drugs with the help of infected injection needles.

She said she hoped villagers concerned about HIV/AIDS could play a role in their respective communities to dissuade or discourage people from engaging in activities prone to HIV/AIDS infection.

The two-day course was participated in by 30 villagers from Kuta and Petang sub districts and a number of Badung District health officers.(*)

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