REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BATAM - At least 38 people died of HIV/AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) in Batam in the first half of the year, the Batam AIDS Control Commission said. They were 21 women and 17 men mostly in productive age, Pieter P Pureklolongemn, the Commission secretary, said on Friday. 

Pieter attributed the spread of the disease to prostitution in Batam, an Indonesian island just south of Singapore. "Men infected by HIV/AIDS spread the disease to their wives and babies of infected women," he said. 

He said altogether the number of HIV/AIDS carriers in Batam reached 287 in the first half of this year including 130 men and 157 women. AIDS carriers alone made up 127 of the total number including 69 men and 58 women, he said. The number of the people infected by AIDS increased from 112 last year, he said.

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