Sydney, 30 June: Papua New Guinea (PNG) has become the “Africa of the Pacific” in terms of HIV/AIDS, with reported infection rates rising at an alarming rate while a significant number of cases go undetected.
Officially there are about 8000 HIV-positive people in PNG – half the number of infected people in Australia – but widespread under-reporting hides the real figure of about 72.000, according to the Pacific Islands Aids Foundation.
That means about one in every 80 people in PNG has HIV, compared with Australias ratio of one in every 1.250.
Pacific Islands Aids Foundation founder Maire Bopp Allport, a Tahitian woman who was diagnosed with HIV in 1998, yesterday said not even PNG leaders were aware of the severity of the disease.
During the Emerging Pacific Leaders Dialogue – a three-day conference in Brisbane – Ms Bopp Allport said the true number of HIV/AIDS cases in PNG was nine times the officially reported figure.
– A lot of people are admitted into hospital for the AIDS-related illness, much more than the hospital can cope with – about 100 every month. There is burials every day, Ms Bopp Allport said.
– PNG is the Africa of the Pacific: big numbers (of infections), very little resources, a lot of poverty, hardly any communication facilities across country, different languages and a very poor literacy rate.
Australian Nobel laureate Peter Doherty warned Thursday that with no AIDS vaccine in sight, countries had to promote the use of condoms.
He criticised US President George W. Bush for pushing abstinence over contraceptive protection. – The Bush administration has been cutting funding for international womens health, Professor Doherty told the conference, adding:
– This is due to sensitivities about the abortion issue, it has been a catastrophe. We need a vaccine (for AIDS) but I can tell you frankly we do not know how to make a vaccine … unfortunately it is a very, very tough problem.”
Two in every five people in PNG earn less than on US dollar (5,80 DKR) a day, making it impossible to afford AIDS medication, which costs at least 150 dollar a month.
PNG accounts for more than 90 per cent of HIV infections in the southern Pacific region.
South Africa remains the country most severely affected, with almost 20 per cent of the population carrying the AIDS virus. However, 5,7 million people in India were infected by the end of last year, compared with an estimated 5,5 million South Africans.
Kilder: The Australian og The Push Journal
