PLAN TO MICROCHIP AIDS PATIENTS SCRAPPED

A controversial proposal to microchip people with HIV/AIDS in an Indonesian province in order to monitor the disease has been scrapped.

The plan by legislators in the province of Papua came under fire from activists who said that it infringed on people’s basic human rights.

Deputy Governor Alex Hasegem agreed and the measure has been dropped from a health development bill by Papua’s parliament.

The drastic plan would have seen small microchips implanted in patients who are “sexually aggressive” with the aim of tracking down and punishing people who deliberately infect others with HIV.

Papua, a poor and remote province, has the highest rates of HIV infection in Indonesia.