Global AIDS - Papua New Guinea

PNG a Frontline for AIDS - Lloyd Jones
Australian Associated Press - Friday, February 18, 2005

Papua New Guinea  is a new frontline in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and it must mobilize all sectors of society in the effort or pay a high price, UNAIDS  Executive Director Peter Piot told a forum luncheon at the PNG Parliament Thursday.

"It's clear now that on every single continent, except in Oceania, entire nations have succeeded in bringing down the number of new infections," said Piot.

Piot said he was shocked by the dramatic rise in the number of people living with HIV in Papua New Guinea. It is clearly a heterosexual type of epidemic that is greatly affecting women, Piot noted.

Extreme poverty, sexual violence, gender inequities, and urban migration have combined to make PNG society vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, he said.

Papua New Guinea, added Piot, must stop the emerging epidemic in its infancy or pay a very high price. "It's about the survival of the nation," said Piot.

Former Prime Minister Sir Mekere Morauta told the forum that every PNG family was directly or indirectly affected by HIV/AIDS. "Yet every one of the estimated 100,000 living with HIV/AIDS faces stigma and discrimination. Their families are afraid to support them because of their own fear of stigma and discrimination," said Morauta. Leaders at all levels must tackle these issues if Papua New Guinea is to reduce the spread of the disease, he noted.